AnonyMouse_3735

What do snowmen have for breakfast? 

What goes 'Oh, Oh, Oh'? 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/uniform-tax-refund/

While on uniforms ,ensure your staff know about the uniform tax refund.. you may get a tax rebate if you have to wear a uniform and wash it yourself. Always worth a try, they can only say not eligible,but it may work.. . 

I had a selection of song bags.. about 15 items in each one relating to a song.Often they were a prop to use, and they occasionally related to more than one song. Many were finger puppets or toys we found around the room.. Children would take it in turns to have a lucky dip song. Some sang solo, others in group depending on the child.. 

I had a song book I had made with words and a picture for each one, it was always a work in progress, but it was kept in the book box and the children would often dig it out and begin spontaneously singing the songs they recognised. Those they didn't they would often come and ask someone to help them sing it.. 

I often think that people say something believing we all understand their process behind it, it then gets taken out of context and chinese whispers make it more of an issue than it really is.. I am sure every early years setting sings.

Cannot see it happening, expecting the company to pay the same for 4 days work when they could get 5 is asking a lot.

It would be possible but the mindset is to get as much work out of employees as they can and many already expect more than 5 days work , what with work out of hours evenings and weekends.  

This also would not work for many jobs, cannot get more productivity out of a person who works set shifts for a reason, childcare, shop work,bus drivers, and many other jobs would need more employees to cover , and would cost too much to the company. 

Nice idea but impractical on so many levels

They are lovely, well done for such a thoughtful idea and then actually making them.. I love the elephants, so different to the usual teddy ones.  

I have been pondering on wording that is suitable .. 

I would point out that you are a transition between nursery and school  and operate completely differently, while using EYFS for curriculum and regulations  this does not include your business model. This is individual to every setting and will be different. Your policies and procedures will reflect your practices.  If she wants the same as the nursery. As Sunnyday has said, ensure she has them and ask her to look very carefully to ensure you are  the setting for her and that maybe she should look at others as well to find what she wants. 

Point out that joining the committee will not allow her to change policies as there are a lot of steps to go through to change them,  parental consultation, meetings AGM and then ensuring they work for the staff who are not obliged to change hours etc all of which will take about a year to complete an even then may not change if enough parents do not vote it in. . 

Out of hours meetings etc.. involve a cost which you cannot afford.  Being in a school means you have to follow the hours they allow you to operate, stressing that she will have to ensure collection on time.  (I help operate  toy library in a school and know how hard it is to be open when the school is closed, often having to cancel at short notice because we cannot get in!) 

You treat each child as an individual and work to their needs whenever possible, hence no group nap times as not all children need them or want thm at the same time. 

Many parents do not want weekend events as they have other family and children to consider, as do all your staff, they need their time off too.. .. (even if they have grown up children, unless she knows you all personally she is not to know that.. (My 20 year old was left to wait at the school gates on his own many times and I  did ask if it was fair as I had to wait for them!)

As to the calpol, I assume your policy covers it somewhere, Research has shown that parents ar using too much and relying on it, so some children are actually addicted to it.. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/calpol-really-safe-cure-all-children/  .  I never gave it either, unless prscribed by a doctor and it was essential treatment.  I always also made sure they were all aware of the 48hour rule for upset tummies etc.. that one always caused issues with  parents.That was until someone did send them back to early all the staff became ill and had to close for 4 days! Once I explained this we seldom had a problem.

Remain calm, and answer her questions, it's not worth worrying about as she cannot insist you change for one person - you are following your procedures and policies. Confused is something we would all be, why choose somewhere that does not fit their needs?(Probably assuming that going there will ensure they get into the school. Not always the case though, so maybe that needs explaining too)

This is I assume a first time parent with one child.. maybe wrong, but she is in for one big shock when her child goes to school.  

Sorry, bit of rambling there but maybe it will help get your response straight. 

I am so loving this weather .Now we have had it for so long and have it sussed will be hoping long may it continue.. Suppose it helps living near the coast and countryside. Up early for walk on the beach, followed by shopping, not that we need anything everyday, but it is a lovely respite from the heat and can spend hours wandering and buying one item! Just need to choose the right shop depending on how cold we want it.. today Lidl was perfect.. Asda is always the coldest. We then hibernate from the sun before spending the evening watering and pottering in the garden.. or back out to the beach.. 

Produce is not as good as usual, not been watering enough really but getting a steady supply of french beans, runners, courgettes, and tomatoes-  cucumber is late but will be inundated soon. 
Looking on this as a practice run for our winter break in Oz.. 2 months staying with our son - but he does have air con so gets respite at home.. 

7.30am is a lovely time for a stroll and paddle.. 

37 minutes ago, Mouseketeer said:

 not sure we’ll be seeing the blood moon tonight. 

we definitely wont, far too cloudy,no rain ....yet.. Weekend is looking like a break in the weather, Sunday being a rain all day forecast, My garden will heave a sigh of relief.. even if I wont. Saw far too much rain this winter.  

49 minutes ago, zigzag said:

Well it’s cold here today, back to trousers and long sleeved top☹️A few showers but not enough to do any good.  I want the sun back, I promise not to moan about the heat again😎

Somerset is still hot but cloudy, we were on the beach at 7am to make the most of the cool weather before the tourists arrive, the place has been so busy recently , so we make the most of early and late.

Love that holiday feeling of eating out in the evening on the seafront , in one of the many bars/ hotels.. lovely.. no need to go away Long may it continue.. 

taken from their Facebook page as I know some don't use it. 

PSLA 30 hours provider survey

Pre-school Learning Alliance

 

Points counting does not work, you cannot cut a child or adult in half.. I know someone who did this ended up understaffed and got caught out.. 

If a member of staff has one child in a lower ratio then you can put older children into that ratio.so long as you don't exceed it. You cannot have a younger child in a higher ratio .

I used to put each adult into a 'box' and allocate children to that box.. it they had one under 3 than the box only had room for 3 more children..over 3 and the box could hold 8 children. 

https://eyfs.info/forums/topic/47827-ratios-help/?tab=comments#comment-441706

This thread has a very useful table to help work out ratios..It may be an old one but still works.. it is a topic that regularly emerges.. Does not include under 3s though .

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3291913-are-sahms-a-dying-breed

As Friday is no special day for me, I have refrained form chatting but have found it all very entertaining.. I did however find the thread mentioned above, dont ask me how as I never go to that site, only this one, but became curious.. and had to see if I could find it.. ( Its raining here this afternoon so enjoying the first cooler day in weeks and been gardening in the rain, no need to water today. )

For us it was a happy accident, when My husband left the Army, that is where the job was.. could have been anywhere.. having lived in towns, country and all in between, here and in Germany while travelling with him, it was a bonus to get a job in a good location. 

A village on outskirts of a town, with a great community feel.  Close to seaside with lovely beaches but no sea most of the time and it is usually brown when you do see it..Also surrounded by lots of countryside, hills and walks of all kinds.. Lots of activities and 'things going on' often free.. (see pic for last weekend's - 2 days of air festival and Forces village with entertainment, plus music , funfair and lots more . as it was taken into the sun it does not show how blue the sky was ) Big downside is the summer and good weather often means the place is gridlocked and you cannot go out of the area unless you want to sit in a carpark on the motorway, but there is really no need to leave so not an issue for us. Stunning sunsets at any time of year.. ( the sunset pic is unedited and exactly as it was 2 nights ago at 9.40pm)

Didn't realise this was still going until I came across it by accident..   Maybe worth a look to see what they offer .

Early Years TV

This really is one of those things that can change year of year or even term to term, depending on the children. Over the years I must have tried so many different ways.. 

We too had an issue with transitions in and out as we all had to move at the same time, no freeflow and a short narrow corridor between the two.. 

We did however line up some of the time, nothing wrong with learning a simple skill that also helped with fore drill and other times when it was necessary for children to listen and be 'under control' -for want of a better phrase.

I never used music though other than a song we sang together or while doing the task in hand. Usually spontaneous and made up by a member of staff at the time if needed.  Children tended to join in and if sometimes helped.  (time to put the toys away, toys away, toys away, - to mulberry bush was a favourite)

One thing I did was to change the wording of the task- on reflection I wondered what tidy up really meant to a 3yr old.. and so we decided to use a different phrase.. time to put the toys away -As staff we decided it described the action we were asking them to do,less arbitrary than tidy up.. . 

Other things we did was call them together and give them tasks in groups, one completed the task they would get outdoor clothes and put them on.. once one group was there the others tended to speed up, all wanted to be outdoors first.. 

Put things away as they go.. not always possible but they mostly got the hang of it.. 

Once some were ready we did send one of us outside with others following.. we used a walky-talky between staff if needed- 

Milling children- I have one year had children all find a book to look at while waiting for others to finish.. they found a book and sat on a carpet area.. in sight they enjoyed this and for that group it worked.. or I would send them to help another group or child. 

We found it was all about trying to find the best for the children, and for us to keep our sanity at the same time, if that meant queues and lines we did it, what worked one year seldom worked another 

We always felt that someone was employed to do a specific job . 

If we needed an EYT we would have advertised and employed one but to gain a qualification while working did not automatically mean that  a job would magically appear for that qualification..

We did aim to employ all level 3  so we had an enhancement / added salary to that level. It was not much but it did encourage more training for those reluctant. 

We used to say unfortunately we did not have a job vacancy for a EYT at this time but we would consider them if one arose. Meanwhile they could apply for appropriate jobs at other settings if they wish..

 I had a job description  with everything expected of them - including working at home. I also explained that for it to happen ratios would change and someone else on the team would need to be made redundant so they would need to take on her role as well. 

Just had a look at the web cams, gosh the Trevi Fountain is really crowded, ws not like that when we visited, was able to spend time sitting on the edge of the water.. (yes I did manage a sneaky paddle  too..), 

venice is offline.. 

For both comfy walking shoes and a good map, 

I have visited both but not for a while now, Venice is very costly, we used local water taxi to get around when not on foot, worth it for the experience, staying overnight it is worth a wander around once all the day tourists have gone.

Rome was local buses and on foot- it is always busy there , Vatican and Sistine Chapel both have very long queues, and security to check bags is almost everywhere.  There are a lot of water fountains around the city so take/ reuse a water bottle to avoid the high costs of bottled water, all is safe from the tap. We found with a map we could walk to all the places we wanted to visit.. our hotel was out of the city centre so we used buses as well, was easy .. ask where you are staying to help with that if you need to.  

That was always our issue,  we were paid only 38 weeks funding but if we were open same as school ended up with one week unpaid.. it did not work using these days for training etc as we were not paid for them , so we decided to only open for the weeks we were paid.. no training days for us in funded hours.. 

Definitely varies between areas.. our are can open less than 38 weeks and the setting declares at the beginning of the funding year how many weeks they will be open, and gets paid for just those weeks.. None of those paid for dys can be taken for training , etc. Settings must be open for all the claimed weeks, and if there is a closure day in that week have to make up by opening an extra day.  They do offer some lee way for emergency closure .You need to contact your local funding team to find out .

They would need to be fitted for each child, this would take time and knowledge on correct fitting..this would include correct size for child's head measurement and adjusting straps.. In addition not all are the same shape so they also need to be the correct shape for the child's head. If not correctly fitted they can be more harmful than not wearing one.. 

Most sites suggest wearing one when on 2 wheels.. so do some research and risk assess.. not seen any legislation for them in nursery.

This is so good an idea and inexpensive too.. always a bonus.. get parents to give you all those old pool noodles, but they dont cost much anyway. 

https://babbledabbledo.com/playground-sized-diy-marble-run/

did it work?