Wet mopping floor at nursery half hour before end of session

[jaabaar]

Hi

Is it reasonable that nursery huddles children in one corner and tidies and wet mops the floors half our before evening closure.

The children have to stay in the tv corner for at least half hour and are constantly told do not walk there do not run etc etc.

This used to be done after children leave nursery.

When I mentioned that this could be a hazard I was told owner does not pay us to clean after nursery hours.

What is your opinion?

[Margocat]

Sorry....

Getting harder to find. So sorry untitled for what you and (honestly more importantly) the children in your nursery are experiencing.

It doesn't have to be like that thou, but it's important that parents are discerning about their nursery.

OP I think you are entirely correct, the children absolutely should not be left to their own devices for the last half hour of the day. Not because you have paid for it (althou that's v important) but because it's not fair on the children for it to be otherwise!!

[Margocat]

There really are some excellent nurseries out there, even if they are gett

[grumpalumpgrumped]

That is outrageous untitled - its a sad state of affairs. Not all private nurseries are like that, I run one that isn't. We have cooks, cleaners, additional staff to cover paperwork, adequate breaks, paid overtime, time off for appointments, access to assessors (one had been in for 8 hours today), reasonable pay, bonus payments etc.

There are some good ones out there.

[untitled]

Sorry for the long post but I am incensed by the way my colleagues and I are treated in our roles as nursery nurses and this might help people see why the cleaning gets done in nurseries whilst the children are still there.

I work in a nursery. To reduce costs they have been whittling our hours down to the bare minimum. I am contracted to work 4 x 10 hour days, 8am to 6pm. I am now paid from 8am until the time the last child in my care leaves. I had originally been told I would be paid any extra hours needed to do the cleaning as we have no cleaner. The last child to leave is a 9 month old baby. Today the manager was looking after him whilst I cleaned the baby room. I vacuumed and mopped. His Mum collected him early, at 4.15pm. At that point the doors were open and all toys and small items of furniture raised off floor to allow for mopping. The manager said I had to leave now as she was locking up; as we wouldn't get paid for any time after the baby left (4.15pm) despite the fact that my agreed hours today were until 5.30pm.

So I left the nursery at 4.30pm which is when they will pay me to. On Monday both myself and the baby arrive at 8am. He will have to sit in his cot whilst I put away the mop and bucket, his pushchair, put all the furniture and rugs back in place then go and boil his drinking water for the day and do the daily risk assessments.

My two colleagues look after the 2, 3 and 4 year olds. They didn't get any time today to do their planning paperwork for next week. So they had to take it all home to complete over the weekend. Thankfully I got mine done today as in the baby room you get the odd half hour at naptime. One of my colleagues is an apprentice nursery nurse working 40 hours per week and being paid £90 per week. She has a level 2 qualification and is doing an apprenticeship to work towards her level 3. She does more or less the same work as the other NN and myself who are both Level 3 qualified. In 5 weeks she has received one hour training from her Learn Direct tutor who is meant to be overseeing her training.

We also have no cook. So the nursery staff have to prepare all meals and snacks and do the washing up. When this happens we are short on ratio staff as there is no additional staff to cover for this and the kitchen is the opposite end of the building to the nursery.

So you can see that private nurseries are using all sorts of cost cutting methods; many of which adversely affect the care provided to children; this is no fault of the staff however.

I was a child minder for 23 years and I know that the children in my are received a much higher level of care than those in the nursery I work in. But the parents think that because it is a private nursery they are getting superior care. They see all the paperwork which extols the virtues of the nursery and says how high the standards are. They say they use locally sourced food. In our nursery that means it comes in a tin or out of a ready meal packet from the local supermarket round the corner

[Viviennemary]

I think the cleaning should be done when the children leave. It could be a safety issue. I bet they won't do that when Ofsted inspects.

[TiggyCBE]

I went to work today in a well funded, well equipped, well built nursery with good, well paid staff who have tidying, planning and general paperwork time built into their day. The nursery also employ cleaners who clean after the children leave. It's council run.

Private nurseries are different. They have to make a profit. Cheap nurseries are cheap because they don't spend much money. They pay poorly, cut corners, and lie about what they do. That's life in the childcare sector.

[jaabaar]

I think I will leave it at that.
Advertising something you dont do and charge for it is wrong - no matter what the excuses or reasons are.
Thank you all for the inputs and have a lovely sunny day!

[Technical]

Morgause, I never go home on the dot either but I'm not hourly paid on minimum wage. People employed on the kinds of terms found in nurseries are absolutely entitled to leave on the dot and IMO they and their employers should make sure they do. Not least because otherwise they'll be earning less than NMW.

[ShadowOfTheDay]

I expect to finish on the dot - I am paid NMW...... in a shop .... pay me decent money and I will work longer...

(and there is no extra money/time off/other benefit for those who "go the extra mile" or any of the other cliches either..)

[Morgause]

There aren't that many jobs where people go home on the dot these days, are there? Most people expect to stay until the day's work is done.

I never finished "on the dot".

[NoraRobertsismyguiltypleasure]

I can't believe there is a nursery that has TV! Is this normal? I've worked in several nurseries and never had a tv - we are paid to educate and entertain the children. If the nursery want quiet time they should be reading books.
We used to tidy up, sweep and mop floors during the last half hour, but the children would have been having a quiet time with books or something quick to tidy away like big blocks. Not fair to expect staff to stay after hours to clean, they usually end up doing extra most days anyway.

[Technical]

Where do you think the substantial profit is in £6 per hour?

I agree they should provide what they say they will but really for 30 mins out of an otherwise action packed day? If it will make you feel better, ask them to change their published timetable, or change the nursery if you think you'll find better for the money elsewhere.

The owners take on substantial risk by running the business, they're entitled to make some profit, otherwise why would they do it?

[jaabaar]

Technical
No there is more then one way.
Owners and directors make quite substantial profits....

And no I dont begrudge paying the 1200 what I begrudge is when nurseries say they provide this and that and then they do not.

[Technical]

"Regarding staff wages, I believe that practitioners are underpaid and they are the people who do a very very important job!!!! Agree with all comments made regarding this."

But you begrudge the £1200 you pay.....There's only one way to increase the practitioners' pay

[jaabaar]

Geeez! Typos???? Apologies!!

[jaabaar]

Insancerre

No im not one of those parents who picl up last minute because I paid for it. Im one of those parents whi unfortunately have to work full time and have over an hour comute time.
I would be a much happier mum if I had the choice to pick up half hour earlier and pay full.

However I have to admit im one of those parents who wants her child trated as
Per how thr nursery advertise and sell themselves.

I would be extremly happy if aomonw seats with the children and reads a book to them or if they watch educational tv with an adult sitting with them.

Does this make sense to you insancerre?

If I arrive bang on time I always say ohh dont bother with feedback as you have it all written down on the report.

Regarding staff wages, I believe that practitioners are underpaid and they are the people who do a very very important job!!!! Agree with all comments made regarding this.

When the nursery was under siffeeent manager they haf one practitioner starr half our late and stay half hour longer for cleaning.

However activities should be described and advertised as per what is delivered!

The nursery is one room only.

[threepiecesuite]

Also, the nursery owners live a few doors down from the nursery in a modest house with 2 modest cars. So I don't feel too ripped off!

[threepiecesuite]

Our nursery operates til 6pm. There are very few children left after 5.30 and yes the staff mop and hoover then. Remaining kids go in book corner with books and wooden jigsaws.
I try to pick up around 5pm where poss (I'm a teacher) as I think it's an awfully long day for a pre schooler. The cleaning doesn't bother me at all. Many staff will have put in a 9 or 10 hour shift and are entitled to shoot off at 6pm.

[Technical]

This is the problem with paid childcare, op talks about the 1200 pm she pays as if it's a huge sum, which it is if you have to pay it and she clearly bridges it - wants absolute value for it.

But, as she's last to collect lets say dd is there for 10hrs a day, thats 6 per hour. There's no huge profit in that

[TinyTear]

In my nursery I have seen they join classes 1 to 4 in class 1 at the end fo the day and I have seen them mopping class 2 which is next to class 1 when I go and pick up.

I pay to 5h30, but tend to collect at 4h50 so not sure when they mop class 1... but i wouldn't have a problem with some quiet carpet time / story time while they cleaned up...

When i worked in a bookshop many moons ago I used to resent having to stay after my shift to tidy, so i wouldn't want the same for the nursery staff, if that wasn't included in their hours

[PinkMacaroons]

"I work in a nursery and do an extra 10 minutes every day, as parents arrive late or bang on closing time and still expect detailed feedback on their child's day, while their child plays up and parents faff about trying to put coats on and collect belongings."

Our nursery penalises parents if they arrive late to pick up the child your parents generally are on time. Why should parents be expected to pick up well before closing time though, they pay through their nose for it. Also why shouldn't parents get a full debrief, even at the end of the day? It is part of the service agreement, so I don't see the problem there.

However, no one should be expected to work for free (although most people do in office jobs by not taking their lunch break or not leaving at five on the dot). The nursery should pay staff for an extra 15 minutes after closing time.

Also I don't agree that nurseries are not good business. Where we live nursery owners take home an absolute fortune.

OP, wrt your question, ask the nursery what kind of free play the children can do during cleaning time as they are not allowed to access part of the room. Of course they need to quickly clean the floor after lunch, although at our nursery it's the kitchen staff who do this.

I would not be happy with half an hour not very well supervised playtime, whilst nursery teachers are cleaning.

[clairealfie]

As the PP said at our nursery all of the children go into one room near the end of the day so that the others can be cleaned. There's not many left after around 4:45pm. The TV is on for the tired ones but there's always toys out and staff playing as well.

I wouldn't have a problem with TV time for half an hour if that was in the timetable so yes I would just ask that the written routine is updated to reflect it.

[OwlCapone]

So, you'd be happy with the cleaning if the printed routine said "quiet time in the book corner" or similar?

[insancerre]

ah I see, you are one of those parents
that don't pick up till closing time because 'I've paid for it'
so would you be happy if the nursery reworded the time table and called it storytime or quiet time?
the free play probably refers to it being less structured and not adult led
they have had that all day
ime children need some wind down time at the end of a long busy day, which is exactly what your child is getting

[EverythingCounts]

Mine does this after tea as JellyMoulds says. But at the end of the day the children gather in one room - could yours do this while floor is mopped in other rooms? Have to say I sympathise with the staff here. Sounds like they can't win as either they do unpaid work or parents moan. Speak to the owner and ask if there isn't a better solution that doesn't involve unpaid overtime.