Dear Parents and Carers
Please find attached the response to our parent survey that was distributed in February. Also can we remind parents, particularly those in the 2-3’s, that we have our school information evening this Wednesday (7.30pm – 8.30pm) with a guest speaker from St Nicholas. This brief information session is to outline the processes parents have to go through when choosing a school for their children. All parents are welcome. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Michelle.
Snails
The babies shall continue with their theme of outdoors this week, whereby the garden shall be used as an environment to explore wooden and metal treasure baskets. Weather permitting; the babies shall also have tea in the garden.
Puppets shall be used in the soft corner, created in the garden, where the children can listen to nursery rhymes.
Days off Jenni – Thursday
Caterpillars
The Caterpillars shell be getting creative this week by concentrating on the current interests of the children which are messy art activities such as painting and gluing and sticking. The children shall get the opportunity to print using paint. They shall also make sand pictures and the children will use different parts of their body, such as hands and feet, with paint to create animal shapes.
Jamie – Day off Friday Stacy – Annual leave Monday afternoon.
Ladybirds
The Ladybirds shall continue with the theme of ‘Art’ this week, supporting the children’s enjoyment in getting messy. To support their interest the children shall be using pens and pencils to explore mark making, use water to ‘paint’ in the garden and have access to a variety of materials to explore gluing and sticking.
The Ladybirds would like to ask parents to provide their children with a raincoat during this unpredictable season.
Days off Julie – Friday Abi - Monday
Bumblebees
Land transport shall be the focus of interest for the Bumblebees for the next two weeks as the children have shown interest in the transport theme through their role play. The team shall encourage the children to build cars and trains using the Duplo bricks, whilst eh children make train tickets to use in the role play area. The transport puzzles shall be used to support the children’s understanding of different modes of travel.
Tash – Day off, Monday
This week transport, in this country and others around the world shall be the focus of interest, as the children have been drawn to this theme through building garages out of bricks, playing with the train track and making roads for the cars out of different materials around the room.
To support this theme books surrounding transport shall be read at story times, the role play area shall be transformed into a train station ticket office and the children shall bake biscuits shaped like the method of transport of their choice.
To support mathematical development, the transport resources shall be sorted by the children into either colour, size or method of transport and a matching game surrounding the theme shall be available for the children to play with a team member.
The Pre school would like to remind parents to sign their children in/out of the building, as it is a legal requirement.
Some of you may have noticed that Jo has been absent for a few weeks, this was due to an operation and she is due to return to work on Wednesday May 22nd. I am sure that you will join me to wish her a speedy recovery and also to say well done to the pre school team with regards to their hard work in her absence.
Stani – Day off, Friday
Feedback form parent Survey – April 2013
Q1: What is your opinion of the building, garden and parking area?
All responses indicated that parents are happy with the building, especially since the redecoration. One area of concern is that parents are driving on the footpath when approaching/leaving the site, posing an increased danger to children. A notice shall be posted in each room to remind parents of the dangers posed by driving on pedestrianised areas.
Q2: Do you find the environment stimulating for your child?
There was a unanimous response whereby parents were generally happy with the environment being provided for the children.
Q3: What areas do you think we excel in?
The main thread of feedback received involved including and developing the child, making them feel secure.
Q4: What areas do you think we could improve upon?
The rotation of menu’s and equipment were highlighted here. The menu’s will be revised as once our new chef has settled into her role and our kitchen environment, whilst the selection of toys shall be discussed with the staff at the next staff meeting.
One other concern that was highlighted, by a survey returned, was the fact that outdoor shoes are worn in all rooms apart from our baby room, making the rooms unhygienic. Please could I ask for further feedback (either in person, by telephone, or email) on whether parents would prefer that we have a no shoe policy in all of the rooms.
Q4: How do you find the levels of communication?
Many of you replied that you have seen an improvement recently, especially with the introduction of the weekly blog, however consistency regarding verbal feedback remains an issue.
When this was discussed at a recent staff meeting staff were aware of the limitations regarding verbal feedback and especially when a group of parents turn up to collect their children all at once, whereby time is limited. Unfortunately, according to my research carried out last summer, this is an inherent problem within many busy settings. Other barriers that staff faced surrounding verbal feedback was the issue of parent consultation, whereby actions were discussed and agreed with one parent which were not relayed to the second parent.
This is an area we are very aware of and hopefully with the introduction of further means of communication, especially electronic, this will go some way to eradicate the issues highlighted by both parents and staff.
Q5: As a parent how involved do you feel in the nursery?
The majority of surveys returned showed that parents felt as involved as they wished to be within the nursery, however parent shift patterns were identified as a barrier. If anyone has any suggestions regarding how involve parents further, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Investment plans for the setting for 2013/2014 shall be announced shortly, nearing the end of the improvements set out last year, as demonstrated on the poster in the display case on the wall outside.
Q6: What do you think about the food we serve?
Again the overall response was that the standard of food was great. There was a concern that the teas were not really substantial enough and that snack, on one occasion was rice cakes with thick butter. (This happens on occasion whilst the children are learning self help skills by, at times, preparing their own snacks and teas.)
Tea is described as a high tea and therefore is not designed to be as substantial as the main meal which is lunch. As pointed out by Wendy, out previous chef, the children eat every two hours whilst at nursery and therefore over the course of one day/half day have plenty of nutritional food provided. Our snacks are based on healthy options. Instead of cakes, biscuits and juice, we choose to offer rice cakes, bread sticks, cheese cubes and vegetable crudités, as examples. We are highly aware of how important it is, to both parents and the children, to provide quality food. Should parents have any suggestions of improvements to the menu’s that they would like to see, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Q 7: Are the staff helpful, professional and approachable?
Again parents unanimously agreed that the staff were all of the above.
Q8: Do you find the keyperson approach useful?
Do you feel that you understand it?
Again, all of the responses indicated contentment over the above, however also highlighted that this is not necessarily owed to the particular key person but more in relation to the team as a whole.
Q9: How do you find the financial side of the nursery?
Is there anything we can do to improve the billing?
The majority of replies were happy with the billing system, especially now that they are sent via email, however some parents were unclear how there 15 hours, free entitlement is allocated and also two surveys commented on the expense.
As the 15 hours are an entitlement and not a discount, we are unable to show them as such on the bill, although the amount of hours is stated on each monthly invoice. Also there is a handout available explaining how the free entitlement works which is available from the office. If you would like a copy, please see Leanne and going forward, we will ensure that all parents whose children are about to become eligible for the free entitlement receive a copy.
With regards to our daily rate, when considering whether a fee increment is necessary (based on the expenditure of the setting eg; staff salaries, NI contributions, insurance, food costs etc) we try to keep the increase as low as possible and within the local area, our fees are still very competitive to other settings, who are not heavily subsidised by a third party, such as the government.
Q10: Are there any other services you would like us to offer?
(e.g; children’s hairdresser, different opening hours)
It was unanimous that having a hairdresser come into the setting would be advantageous to parents. This is something I will look into and research the logistics of having a hairdresser to come into the setting once per month.
Earlier opening hours would be beneficial to some parents. We do give the option to parents to start at 7.45 am or finish at 6. 15 pm, however there is an additional charge of £2.50 per session for this service and there needs to be 24 hours notice of parents requirements. Also we do not allow children to attend at both ends of the day, purely because we feel the day is too long for the child.
Q11. What are your thoughts about the events and special occasions that we arrange?
Most of the feed back commented on how good and enjoyable parents found the events that we arrange. One piece of feedback felt that there wasn’t enough of them and coffee mornings for other children, not just the pre arrange NCT classes, would be beneficial. Unfortunately this is not something that we can offer as the NCT parents have to join the group and therefore we have some reassurance as to who we have in the building, if we opened up the setting to anyone with children this could pose a possible threat as we would have no control over who was in the building, in respect to fire regulations, child protection issues and amount of people attending, but to name just a few of the barriers as to why we would not be willing to open our doors to the general public whilst children were in our care.
Many of you were interested in the introduction of other electronic services, however, rightly so, would need more information regarding their contextual use before stating whether or not they would be of use to you.
May I take this opportunity to thank all of you who returned the survey’s. They have been invaluable as a tool to review our practice.
