Childminders - 5 to 8's or 1 to 4's???

[chel86]

I have a 4 year old who is at school part-time at the mo, so she's classed as part of my 1-4's. When she starts school full time in a few weeks can I still class her as one of my 1-4's until she turns 5 in March? Only I have two 5-8's every day before & after school and another 5-8 every so often (no more than once a week for 2.5-3 hrs usually) who wants to continue her care with me when she needs me. Does any of this make sense??!!

She's classed as an over 5 as soon as she attends school all day

but can't you have 3 under 5, but up to 6 under 8, so say you could have 2 under 5, and another 4 between 5 and 8?

I'm sorry, I'm really confused about the question tbh but I've had a horrible day so not thinking straight anyway

How many children are you allowed to CHILDMIND (i.e. your kids knocked off) in total and how many are allowed to be under 5's?

Also.....it's a funny time for them to be starting school full time. Most children who turn 5 in March will be starting full time school in January. When you say she's part time now and moving to full time, do you mean she's going every morning or afternoon at the moment but will become full time i.e. going all day every day? It may be that you aren't in England so the schooling is different?

Anyway, thinking about it, if you're asking because you're worried you're only allowed so many over 5's then don't. If you had no children of your own and were granted the full 6 children to childmind, you'd be allowed to have all 6 as over 5's if you wanted, the restrictions are on the younger ages iyswim.

I think you are asking if you can keep a 4 year old who is in full time education as a 4 year old, instead of making them a 5 year old for ratio purposes. To which my view is, yes of course, as they ARE 4 years old!

Childminding Standards (2003)
"2.4 Children aged four attending ten early education sessions a week may
be classed as children over five years for the purposes of the adult:child
ratio."

Note in the above "MAY be classed as children over five years"... doesn't say you HAVE to class them as that, thus I feel they could still be 4 years old.

Not sure yet how to search the EYFS stuff, so not sure if this will change from Sept 2008. Scrub that... just found it:
"where four- and fiveyear-old children only attend the childminding setting before and/or after a normal school day, they may be classed as children over the age of five for the purposes of the adult:child ratio;" Source (see page 51, under section B 12 second bullet point)
So even from Sept 2008, it still says "MAY"

Thank you - that does answer my question. So I may class her as 5 if I need to, but I don't in this case.

She attends school every afternoon at the mo, and as of 15th October starts full time.

So I needn't do anything until nearer March when she does turn 5.

You are allowed 6 under 8 - they could all be 7 if you want
Why would you want her to be classed as an under 5 - am I missing something?

What will you need to do in March

That's the bit I couldn't understand either. You need to inform them if YOUR child reaches the certain ages but not mindees.

write letter to fsted explaining and askin for swap over in ratios, im sure theyll be fine!

I wonder if you're making the same mistake I did? I thought when I registered that I was not allowed more than 3 over 5s at any one time.

You are usually registered for up to 6 under eights. OF THESE 6 children, no more than 3 can be under five and OF THESE 3 no more than 1 can be under one. But you dont have to have any children under one or any under 5 - you can have 6 children age 5-8 if you want to.

So you can count your 4 year old as the fourth child over 5 OR the 3rd child under 5. It really doesn't matter. Whichever way you look at it you're still left with 2 of your six spaces to offer either to under fives OR over 5s.