The Mews News Sheet - December 2000
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Goodbye Sue

Sue Yarlett has sadly handed in her notice and she is leaving us to work at a smaller nursery nearer her home.  Her last day will be the 4 January. Sue is one of the founder members of staff and has been instrumental, in no uncertain terms, in the successful development of all aspects of the nursery and play club. We have a great deal to thank her for. Colleagues, parents and children alike will miss her.  On a brighter note her new job is term time only so she is free to help us during the school holidays. So we are not saying a final goodbye. Best wishes in your new job Sue and please don’t forget us!

The Management Committee discussed Sue’s replacement at the meeting held Thursday 30 November. Helen Wilkinson has subsequently been asked to take on the role of joint –co-ordinator with Sally for the two days until the end of the next term. This will give us time to conduct a review of staffing in the Mews across all the services we offer.

Staffing Review
It is almost ten years since the nursery was opened. Since then it has grown from a 12 to 20 place nursery and 16 place pre school. The latter may extend the number of places on offer to 20.  Also the children once in the nursery now attend the after school club or holiday clubs. Now there are over a hundred children attending at some time during any one week. Sue, Sally and myself had decided a review of structure was needed. and to look carefully at the way we rota, remunerate and use staff expertise. However the management committee agreed that several members of the committee (two parents and two others) would form a sub group and meet in the new year. The group will make proposals if any changes are deemed necessary to the co-ordinators and management committee (next meeting Tuesday 13 February 2001, 7pm in Conference Room)

Request for Escorts!
If any parent is able to act as an escort please see Sally or Rachel, the play school co-ordinator. The pay isn’t great but the company is!

Christmas Fair
Have you offered your services for this Saturday 9 December Christmas Fair? There are plenty of jobs to do beforehand  so all offers gladly accepted. Proceeds towards replacement furniture in both the nursery and play club

Staff Vacancies
It is clear that more staff hours are needed to help with escorting and to cover duties in the pre- school. This is partly because Sue is leaving and partly because it has been difficult to cover holidays and staff illness recently. Sally and Sue will be seeking to make temporary appointments pending the staff restructuring review. Angela has agreed to work full time in the nursery from January and we hope to appoint a part time, term time only, experienced person to take her place. We intend to ensure that the pre- school has three staff on duty so that the computer and reception room can be used. Other members of staff have agreed to increase their hours until the end of the next term.

The Mews Web site
is now in phase one of development and before we go ‘live’ you can help us with comments, views, ideas. We have published our web address for restricted viewing only. It can be seen in the nursery and the staff will give you our web address. (although I guess you know this already – webnanny!)

DON’T FORGET TO START NOW IF YOU WANT TO CLAIM A FREE WEEK FOR HOLIDAYS TAKEN IN 2001
I have been asked by parents on the management committee to clarify the decision last year to drop the holiday retainer and the charges for Bank holidays. It is now a year since we decided to drop the charges for the Bank holidays.   As predicted some of the parents whose children don’t attend on Mondays or when ever the other Bank holidays fall, feel somewhat cheated. Nevertheless it has made a significant dent in the revenue for Bank Holidays weeks. (For those parents who are new to the nursery we used to charge for Bank holidays and charge a 50 % retainer for holidays for three weeks of the year if parents informed us four weeks in advance of the holiday). In place of the retainer all parents were entitled to a free week in October 2000  if they had

(1) Given written notice of three full weeks  holiday (Pro rata)

(2) Notice was in writing on the forms provided  (forms to be collected from the nursery parents board or a member of staff).

(3) Notice had been received and the form date stamped  four clear weeks before the first day of the holiday (for each week if the weeks are separated)

(4) The child has attended nursery for a minimum of 44 weeks (January to September inclusive) during the calendar year.

At the time the decision was made the aim was:

(1)   to encourage parents to inform the nursery  in good time when children would not be attending. This would enable the co-ordinators to assess staffing requirements or release the place for temporary use.

(2)   To ensure that the free week would not apply to parents whose children were leaving in the September. It was possible on the old system to take up a place in January make full use of the retainer and withdraw the child in early July pending starting school in the September.

(3)   To reduce the huge amount of time that the nursery staff had to spend monitoring retainers, counting weeks and making adjustments to accounts every single month. Now the administrator could calculate the free week entitlement, and including Bank holiday adjustments make only six adjustment per year.

(4)   To this avoid the necessity of the management committee having to take up agenda time every year discussing the complaints about having to pay for Bank holidays.

To Sum UP!
Under the present system Bank holidays are free parents who originally had to fund the Bank holidays no longer do so. Clearly parents whose children do not attend nursery on the days on which Bank holidays subsequently fall, continue to pay for the full service they receive. 

The free week which take the place of the retainer is restricted to those parents who:-
·         Use the nursery from January to September inclusive in any one calendar year (except for holiday weeks).

·         keep the nursery co-ordinators informed in advance  if their child is going to be on holiday - a requirement in any event.

·         inform the administrator in writing four weeks before the holiday week(s).

·         take their child out for  a minimum of three weeks (pro rata) between January & September inclusive.