What methods of attendance keeping do you use

[LunaFairy]

I've just implemented a sign in/out sheet for my mindees parents. This would coincide with my own attendance book that I log holidays/sick days in and attach the sheets on a monthly basis. This sheet will be on the wall next to my front door. Out of all my paperwork, I stuggle with my attendance log and fully aware I need to keep on top of it. Paperwork, paperwork - the joys of cming!

I HATE my attendance log and am rubbish at filling it in! I have to make sure I write in my diary who I have and when so that when it comes to filling it in I know who I had on what day!! I MUST get my backside in gear and sort it out. What would Ofsted say

I do much the same: i note in my diary each day who is with me, who is not, what time they came and left.
Then I transfer that info into my NCMA attendance register. Well, my intentions are then to transfer the info.... etc etc etc.

Pain in the bum.

Glad I'm not the only one who is full of good intentions

The attendence record is the one thing I have no problem with. I fill it in daily.

I have trouble with the weekly expenses.

The attendance register is very very important to Ofsted!!! Iknow !! last year i was threatened with prosecution by Ofsted they claimed i had breached a regulation by recording a child as being in my home an hour or half an hour before school and say 2 or 3 hours after.This was a fire risk i think.The trouble is the ncma book says approx times or did so its for childminders to make up their own minds do Ofsted want actual times or contracted .Prob to avoid threats of prosecution its best if you do both .Ive never had a problem knowing if im on my own or not in the house but I now ask any one who comes in even if its just to fix the computer to sign my keep safe in my house book111 and record the exact time they were here

The attendance register is very very important to Ofsted!!! Iknow !! last year i was threatened with prosecution by Ofsted they claimed i had breached a regulation by recording a child as being in my home an hour or half an hour before school and say 2 or 3 hours after.This was a fire risk i think.The trouble is the ncma book says approx times or did so its for childminders to make up their own minds do Ofsted want actual times or contracted .Prob to avoid threats of prosecution its best if you do both .Ive never had a problem knowing if im on my own or not in the house but I now ask any one who comes in even if its just to fix the computer to sign my keep safe in my house book111 and record the exact time they were here

Luna - I have a system very like your new one.

My daily attendance chart is a laminated A4 grid which I use a dry wipe pen on to write down exact in and out times. It's stuck on the back of the entrance door with a small digital time display and a dry wipe pen velcroed to it.

At the end of each day I transfer the in/out times noted to my A4 master attendance log folder, and wipe away the dry wipe entries ready to use that chart again the next day.

I have tried attaching the paper master sheet to the back of the door instead to save time tranferring data. But as it's grid is smaller because it lists all the children on my books, not just those who might be coming on a specific day, it is trickier to fill in quickly.

I have a desk diary

I write the children due, into the diary

The parents sign the children in & out

Very little paperwork

Katy where do you keep your desk diary?

Do you find that all parents remember to sign it twice per day?

Short of hanging one around my neck with an alarm that might sound if a parent tried to leave without signing, any diary here would be nabbed off the table by the children and painted over, or ignored in the bustle of arrivals and departures.

When my youngest ds was at nursery there was a chart on the wall for parents to sign in and out and there were always gaps where parents had forgotten. I often wondered then whether his nursery then had to invent times each week to make their paperwork look complete and to cover for the parents.

I have a shoe cupboard by the door (kitchen worksurface height)

The children know not to touch & the adults sign in & out with only a small reminder

Every couple of months I write on the notice board above it
'OFSTED requires you to sign your children in & yt. Please use accurate times as it is a H&S issue' and they normally do

I have the NCMA attendance register and it's really easy - it's the one thing I've done every day since childminding and it's no trouble just writing down time of arrival and time of departure.

Gooseegg - why would parents need to sign something twice a day. I just get mine to sign in the box at the end of each week. There's nothing to say parents sign on a daily basis.

i get the parent to sign daily - arrival & departure

It's for child protection - both knowing when you take responsibility for the child and also so if there was every a question about where a child was you have exact and unarguable records

I don't actually get my parents to sign the attendance register at all.

There would be too many times when it would get overlooked.

My system is exact and works efficiently, but is down to me (with the help of those parents who have occasionally used the pen themselves to write down the exact times in and out) to operate.

I don't see a problem with child protection because I can defend the exactness of my system. And if I can be trusted to be a registered childminder then I ought also to be trusted to be able to note exact arrival and departure times.

It's not like adminstering meds, where there is a good reason for multiple signatures, i.e. parents sign to give permission, I sign and witness signs to record administration, and parents sign again to acknowledge they have seen what and when I have administered.

There could be a potential problem of parents saying their child wasn't here when they were in order to get a reduced bill. But that hasn't happened yet, parents pay weekly, and payments wouldn't be of any concern to Ofsted anyway.