EYFS Folders. In what state does your nursery deliver them to parents?

[KnackeredOldHag]

Sorry, its a long story here. I'll try to keep it brief. DS1 has just finished pre-school at his nursery. The nursery management have been particularly nasty to us in the last few months because of a complaint about them (they endangered our son because of some very lax safety procedures). Anyhow, on his last day, ds1 took in little good-bye gifts for all his friends, but no-one in the nursery did anything to make his last day special in any way . They also didn't even acknowledge me when I came to collect him and they didn't give him his EYFS folder. Today, the so-called EYFS folder turned up in the post. They had just shoved a loose collection of bits of paper together in an envelope ! No attempt was made to keep the bits of paper together in any way (it was not bound, put in a folder or even as a minimum stapled or paper-clipped together). Just a big bunch of paper in an envelope. There were lots of post-it notes stuck to the paper and the writing on most sheets was almost illegible.

So, is this the normal way that this stuff is delivered to parents? Am I expecting too much to think it should at the very minimum be put into a paper or plastic folder to keep things together? I was just a bit and to be honest, but maybe I'm just expecting a bit much?

I'd appreciate hearing the experience of others so that I can gauge whether this is normal or not.

Thanks (and sorry, I ranted on longer than I meant to...).

Ours was pretty much all in a big bundle, I doubt they have time to create pretty files TBH

The lack of acknowledgement was out of order though.

We used to take ours out of their folders so we could re-use them. The numerous post-it notes thing also sounds normal - we use them for quick on-the-spot observations or comments.

Do you have another child at the nursery? If not, I think you should just let it go. Your ds has left now.

I don't think this is acceptable at all.

How long has your son been at the nursery? Was this the first time you had seen his EYFS folder?

I know it's only been in force since last September but the nursery should have been a bit more responsible in keeping things together.

Also, it's ok to see lots of post-it notes but it what they do with those notes that matters i.e. planning next steps and keeping parents informed.

How old is your son? If he is coming up to school age they will need to make sense of these notes to create the EYFS profile of your child at age 5 (I think that's the age) so I think they should have been a bit more professional.

I suppose I'm just comparing your nursery to the way I do it with my children (I'm a registered childminder) and I've just had a visit from my network co-ordinator who went through my obs, assessment and planning throughly (and all my other EYFS stuff).

I'm up very late most nights doing all this so surely the nursery could have found time with more staff etc.

Thanks all for the replies. Maybe I'm being a bit oversensitive, I'm not sure. He is 4.5 and starting school in september, but as the notes stand I wouldn't give them to his new school which is a pity as his new teacher might have found an extra information to gauge his level useful. He has been at the nursery since he was 5.5 months old, so a long time. This is why I got so upset to be treated like this, as we've been with the nursery for so long.

Our other ds isn't in nursery as he was due to start there in May but the nursery changed their minds about taking him a week before he was due to start as he is anaphylactic to milk, so at the moment dp is taking unpaid leave to stay home and look after them until we find someone who can give good care to ds2.

They sound really unprofessional. The folder can be excused possibly but the lack of acknowledgement and retracting your other ds's place is really bad practice. What reasons did they give for retraction. When I worked in pre-schools we would never turn a child down if measures could be taken to include them. This included staff training for epi-pen use.

I feel very for you he's been their 4 yrs and thats all you have to show for it. Even though EYFS has been enforced since Sept, the Nursery should still have been using Birth 2 Three as they have always been obliged to keep these records as well as the Early Years EYFS is just a rehash of the two different age ranges put together into 1.

I find it strange that they sent the pack to you I thought it was sent onto the new setting ie: school after parents had had a chance to look through and talk to the childs keyworker about it. Are you sure they sent all of it to you? wondering if you got the other bits and they sent the profile of to your DS new school.

They never asked for ds1's school details, so I think that is why we were given it.

With respect to ds2 we were told he would definately come into contact with milk and they didn't even make any effort to do a risk assessment or look at how they could change their practices to reduce the risk of exopsure to milk .

It is just so frustrating and although I know rationally that I should just put it behind me, I'm just actually quite upset by it.

Sounds annoying. Not all schools want to see the stuff from nurseries as they like to make their own assessments of the children when they arrive.

That's good to know anyway and I suppose not all children have been to either a nursery or a childminder (esp. not in our area), so I guess many don't have these folders anyway.

Thanks everyone.

You're right - hadn't thought of that.

I suppose a lot of children will be starting from scratch, with nothing.

So it depends on how you look at it.

Well based on the fact that I am working on my EYFS folders at 11:05 on a saturday night......I probably shouldn't comment

i work in a nursery, and we only remove childrens work and hand them to the parents in a paper folder if they haven't been there long, or if there is not much in it, otherwise the children take it home, permantly.

The reason for the post-its, is so that they can write down spontanous observations, however at my nursery we use note books and then right these up in date order on sheets with boxes set out these come in 8 boxes for small obsevations and 4 for larger observations. We also do structured observations, these have an area where we link several eyfs areas to the observation, we put in childrens work, childrens photo's and art work as well.

Even before we did folders each child had a book of obsevations and many full time children had books inside books, because of so much info and effort we put in, are parents (most of them) seem to appreciate how much time and effort we put in, the parents all have their books permantly, and we know the children like taking their special books or folders home.

So really my point is you got a shoody folder and although i would be really pissed off since your younger child isn't attending i would leave it alone.

It is good to know that some childminders/nurseries do actually make an effort. I wonder, is it a difference between smaller/independent settings or nursery chains, or is it just that some places are run differently to others regardless?

I personally think its up to the individual nursery, whether in a chain or not. However i imagine chain nurseries do inforce a certain amount of rules regarding the folders. However i do not work in a chain and there for can only speak for my own nursery.

at DD's nursery all the staff have post-its in their apron pockets for writing down observations, but they then get transcribed into the EYFS record (I think) - and they also have diaries. They take and print lots of photos and add those to the record as well.

All things considered, it sounds like you are all well out of this one, TBH.