Ofsted have changed the registration process for childcare. There are now 2 registers, one voluntary and one compulsary. The compulsary element is the Early Years Register for those delivering the Early Years Foundation Stage on  non-domestic premises and a voluntary Childcare Register.

Below is a link to an Ofsted document which outlines the commitments as a provider on both registers.

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Forms-and-guidance/Browse-all-forms-and-guidance-by/Title-A-to-Z/Requirements-for-the-Childcare-Register-childcare-providers-on-non-domestic-or-domestic-premises/(language)/eng-GB
 I’m not suggesting that it’s the most interesting read but it’s important that parents are given access to information about the standards expected of childcare providers.

Just a reminder that you can access all Rum Tum Tugger’s Policies and Procedures through the blog.

Hayley

Come on folks, be creative!!

Names so far are:

Cagney and Lacey, Iggle and Piggle, Bubble and Squeak and, (Heavens above!) Hayley and Jil!!!!!!

Let’s have a few more suggestions before the pulling out of the hat. PLEASE.

Thanks to everyone who took part in our recent self-evaluation exercise. I’m delighted to say that the majority of feedback was fantastic and is a wonderful thing to share with the team of staff who look after your children.

Needless to say we are not perfect and one area we are looking into is familiarity of staff and staff turnover.

In real terms, since January 2008, we have said good bye to 3 staff members. One as a result of the consolidation of the North Weald setting and one was a new recruit who found nursery life harder than expected after having worked with primary aged children. More recently, we said farewell to Leanne who wanted to try her hand and being a nanny. 2 members of the team are currently on maternity leave.

We really value our team. We have a rigourous selection process, involving 2 interviews, an assessment and 2 references. All people having access to children are CRB checked. We offer market related salaries and access to a pension scheme that the nursery contributes to. We offer a degree of paid sick leave and paid annual leave and bank holidays. We invest in regular training opportunities, including degree placements, work based training and appraisals to encourage our team in professional development.

From time to time, we use temporary staff to cover periods of annual leave, training or sickness. We choose these individuals from a team of regular relief staff on our payroll. If unavailable, we source cover from a local agency that we have worked with for many years, who supply experienced and vetted nursery nurses or nannies.

We also work closely with Harlow College and Trident to give quality training opportunties to students.

Temporary staff and students in the setting can give the appearence of high staff turn over so to help parents and carers identify who are permanent key members of the team, the staff have been issued with new badges stating their name and role. Badges have also been prepared for Relief Staff and Students so you can immediately place someone’s role within the team.

There is also a staff picture board in the main entrance.

I hope this helps. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please feedback to me. Self-evaluation isn’t just once a year, it’s on going so keep in touch!

So I met the Willow Man again today. (And the Willow Lady too!) We’ve agreed a location for the igloo, a size and agenda for action.

Our igloo will be of a 3m diameter. The dome will have a maximum height of about 6ft to allow easy adult access, windows at child level and the entrance will be through a short tunnel. The flooring of the igloo will be play bark.

We have been advised not to plant the willow strips this side of the winter to give them the very best chance of survival. Willow Man (his real name is Nick Hanson) will be back in the early spring to begin the planting. In the meantime, we need to dig off the turf to a diameter of 3.1m. If we do it sooner, rather than later, the ground will be nice and soft. If we wait until Spring, it could be like rock.

So far, I’ve had 1 gardening volunteer and 1 dad who has been kindly nominated by another family at nursery! (That’s what friends are for, eh?) Anyone else out there? We could crack it in much less time if we work together…….

In the meantime, I would like to find someone who makes or sells rustic benches for inside the igloo. Any suggestions????

Most of you are aware how much of my day is spent working on the many and varied computer systems that operate behind the scenes at Rum Tum’s.  So I guess you can appreciate the depths of despair reached when the fatal error verdict was given on my machine.

We have had to replace the old lap top based system with 2 new desk top systems. One in the office and one at home. Slowly the systems are coming back on-line and some data was retrieved from the defunct machine. Sage, my accounts package, was partially corrupted but I had emailed a back up to our accountants late in August. I will have to back track and re-do about 2 weeks of work, including the September invoices. Please bear with me as we work this through.

My email account is available to use again, albeit from a remote access web site. But that’s better than nothing I suppose.

It’s not until these machines are gone that we realise how much of our lives are contained on them………