Pre-school leader and courses affecting running of pre-school

[Ripeberry]

Just a question for committee members and chairpersons in particular.
Do you expect your playleader to ASK for permission FIRST before going on courses that are held during the day and it means that if they attend then the school has to either employ a stand-in NVQ3 playleader at huge cost OR the school closes for that day.
Just because the pre-school leader says she has to attend a course?
She is just assuming that other people will accomodate her and our chairman is going to blow a gasket! I'm in the middle of it all as the secretary and i only get to hear about this at the same time as the chairman.
Is our pre-school leader out of order??

[MegGriffin]

Hello Ripeberry, does she not have a Deputy? At out pre-school, our committee do not get involved in our training or day to day running of the setting. If the leader is out on a course or ill, I cover for her (I am the deputy) and if it's on a day we are both in, another member of staff comes in. We have six members of staff employed and four are always on duty. Training is positively encouraged although not all members of staff are keen to attend. We have enough trouble getting a committee together at all and they are certainly not interested in what training we attend. I have seen quite a few of your posts and I have to say I wish we had someone on our committee like you who took such an interest in the pre-school and what we were up to. As it happens where I am we are doing very well regardless and recently were graded outstanding in our Ofsted inspection due to a dedicated and hard working team but it would be nice to have that enthusiasm from the parents etc.

[PandaG]

similar to Meg - we have a deputy who covers.

also, there are lots of courses that are compulsory for leaders to attend - safeguarding for example, and at least where I am they are all only run during the week - impossible to attend on a non - working day

[PandaG]

but I also agree with Meg - great to see a committee member who is so committed.

[KatyMac]

Continuous professional development is often written into contracts - you can be in trouble if it's then prevented due to staffing issues

Plus some are legislative (Safeguarding children, first aid, food hygiene)

[Ripeberry]

Hi, thanks for all your kind replies I don't mind helping out at the pre-school as much as i can, it's just that i can't stand it when other parents complain about the pre-school having to close just half an hour early when our playleader and assistant are getting trained on Makaton and other important things.
It just seems a pity that some of the courses are held during the day. And the problem is that our Chairman does not really understand anything about childcare and he has kindly given up some of his time to help out our pre-school because without him we would not be running.
Just got to get a rocket up the backside of the other parents and get the other committee members to start doing fundraising now that Spring is on its way

[KatyMac]

I think you might struggle to get them to attend in the evenings - I know my staff don't want to