AnonyMouse_38752

Hi everyone, so the meeting went really well in the end. To begin with, it was tense, but as we talked mum relaxed and even opened up about the struggles she has getting her child out of the house. We ended up talking for almost 2 hrs! and agreed an action plan, which so far is not working too badly. They now arrive much earlier, she still stays for 20minutes (ish), but it's progress in the right direction. Thanks again for 'listening' to my worries. Great to know there is this supportive community out here : )

When we first openend, we let parents come into the setting for a chat at pickup every night. There was one dad who loved our swings and would sometimes play on them while we tidied up : )

Thank you so much for your words of support and encouragement. The meeting is tonight. I have sent the parents a message, outlining what we will talk about, to make her feel less anxious. The father is now unable to come, as he has to look after the child (they don't seem to have any friends or family to look after the child, which in itself is telling), so mum has told us she wants to record the meeting. I feel really uncomfortable about this and have told her we would prefer she did not, but have asked another staff member to come in just to take detailed minutes so dad feels included. Wish me luck! I may well be back on here tomorrow for a de-brief... ]

Hi everyone, I would love some support around an issue we have. We have a very liberal settling in policy, we do home visits, at least 3 settling in sessions, more if needed, and we generally have an open door policy during our settling in period. However... we have a 4 year old child who started with us back in April and the mother is still staying for up to an hour after dropping them off. We have had various meetings with her, but she is following a 'child-led' approach, meaning she asks her child every day: "can I go now or do you want me to stay longer?" Well, guess what the child replies. When she does leave, he is absolutely fine, he has built strong relationships with his keyperson and the other staff. Mum comes across at quite forceful, most staff are a bit scared of her. When we broached the subject of her leaving earlier, she got quite aggressive, suggesting we are not meeting her child's emotional needs. . She has already made one (unrelated) complaint, so we are all a bit wary of her. We do of course want to support the family, meet mum's need too, but the keyperson feels they cannot do their job properly with mum hanging around for so long. She also feels that mum is observing the staff and judging our interactions with the other children. Once or twice, she commented negatively on the way staff had handled a disagreement between some children. We know from her history that she has tried two settings before us and both times did not stay long. On a different, but related note, if she spends significant amounts of time at the setting, sometimes interacting with the other children, shouldn't she need a DBS check?! Sorry this got longer than intended. I would love some word of advice. I have asked for another meeting and what I would like to say to mum is that she needs to decide whether she trusts us enough to leave her child in our care and if so she needs to leave after a few minutes, like all the other parents. And if she does not, then maybe we are not the right setting for her? it feels harsh, but I don't know what else to try.

Yeah, but don't worry he will shine a light on the invisible killer! But seriously, what are you all doing about offering September places, I would normally send out confirmations to our new starters at the end of this month? I guess everyone will just have to be patient and wait for some clearer guidance...

HI everyone, is it just me or is anyone else confused after the PM speech tonight. He said those who cannot work from home, should go to work now. Does that include EY staff? They can't work from home, but we don't have enough children. There has also been no reference to daycare at all, just reception classes from June at the earliest. So how can I possibly plan ahead? Aarghhh!

Hi everyone, hope you are managing to keep healthy and smiling in these strange times. As many of you, I am trying to keep in touch with our families who are not allowed to attend at the moment. As part of this we would like to start doing video calls using apps like zoom etc. Is anyone else doing this already? And if so would be happy to share their Safe video conferencing policy with us? Most of our staff have been furloughed as we only have 3-4 children in. They would like to contact the children from home, but I'm sure that goes against SG policy. I'm thinking we should only do this from work, on work equipment with another person around. What do others think? I look forward to your advice.