Thinking of setting up a parents' group for my nursery - facebook? Yahoo?

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I am interested in getting together an informal online parents' group for my nursery, just for socialising and informal information sharing.

It also strikes me that the information flow is a bit one way eg. the nursery often applies new 'rules' and ways of doing things, but there isn't really a mechanism for ensuring the views of parents are collectively taken into account in the running of the nursery. It is a private day nursery so there isn't a committee or anything similar.

What would you use for this? Facebook page? Yahoo group? I would want it to be private (parents only).

Facebook wold be my choice, it's very easy, and you can use a group if you wold like to keep things private, or a 'page' if you would like more functionality and an open group.

have you approached the nursery and suggested a parents committee? they might be open to she idea and this would be a better way to get parents views incorporated into the nursery, Ofsted place a huge emphasis on parental involvement so they might be happy to accommodate if only for the Ofsted brownie points!

Don't do it! If someone make a liabelus (sp) post then who will be responsible? It will be a big headache to maintain.

Ask the school if there is capacity to have a parents/class portal off the school website. Try to get the school to moderate it.

Oh it's only t'internets, what's the worse that can happen?

I set up a parents group at my nursery (I am the proprietor) as I felt that parents should take some ownership. I take pride in offering an excellent servicem we already do questionaires, ask parents but I thought it might help parents understand what we have to do, in particular with the policies and EYFS framework, it also ticks a big box with Ofsted for partnership working.

If parents feel they have a say in policy making they will be more supportive of the nursery (hopefully) and this can only help the nursery be sustainable.
It takes a lot of work on my part to get parents involved but we now have about 6 parents interested, have had a couple of meetings, 1 or 2 suggestions put forward and adopted and hopefully they will gain confidence and be able to contribute more fully.
I think you should approach the Manager and discuss the idea of a parents group. It is about partnership working I would feel that if parents did that at my nursery I had failed :-(

Do you have any particular suggestions to put forward?
Let us know how you get on.

Don't do it on facebook - I know someone who sent one up and the nursery falsely claimed to be a parent, joined, and saw the posts on there. Very unpleasant repurcussions for the parents.

Do it with the nursery - it can still be a confidential way of parents discussing issues, then the group reporting back to the nursery. Nursery needn't know who has said what. If nursery are not accommodating to this idea you need to change nursery.

Thanks for the views. I don't think a committee is the way to go - the parent group tend to be high flyers working long hours who wouldn't want the extra call on their time. However, I think that something online might meet a need.

I am definitely going to talk to the nursery, as it is easier to get it going with their support. But on the other hand if a group of individuals want to get together and chat online then, er..they can!

The other issue is that nursery places are at a bit of a premium around here, so parents are unlikely to walk away from a place. However, I do feel that creates a bit of imbalance in the nursery/parent relationship.

Does the nursery have a website? It might be easier and safer to have a parents forum on the website. That way both parties are involved and it can easily be moderated and not used as a platform for malicious posts. It could be members only and be private so it is only read by the members.