what would you do? bad practices
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:02 pm
After taking some time off to stay home with my own children after the birth of my youngest I was offered part time float work in a centre fairly close to home. I thought it was ideal and at the start even considered putting my two little ones in the centre as I would love to have them close to me.
6 shifts later and all quite honestly i am quite disgusted.
These are a few issues I have:
- nursery & toddler age children are being told to 'shut up' constantly - and if they cry because they are tired and hungry (this was in nursery) they are taken out of their high chair and told 'they will have to wait now until the other children are finished for being so silly".
- after hearing a group leader talk about one of the children's siblings possibly having chicken pox she went on to apply sunscreen to her whole group - with her hands one after the other, no gloves, tissues or anything just bare hands one after the other - as does every other staff member in every other group in the centre apparently!
- the 3 oldest groups share a play ground and to say that it is poorly supervised is an understatement. The staff just find a spot to sit down and congregate in this large playground and there have been constant and countless incidents that seem to go completely unnoticed. No safety mats, no staff positioned to be able to supervise properly - nothing.
- meal times in the older rooms are outside. At tables that dont even seat the number of children that are there. There is no wiping down of tables before eating or even handwashing for the children. The children are allowed to sit on the play equipment, in the gardens and on the ground while eating and there is not supervision. They dont even seem to make sure the children have got their food or have eaten it - at all.
- the older rooms have no basic rules or structure at all that has resulted in them being completely out of control with no respect for anything or anyone. Any resources are just completley ruined. There is no packing up after themselves whatsoever and there is no opportunity for any sort of planned group experiences. Just a 2 hour clean up job for the assistant in the afternoon.
- a number of group leaders after 'the food was late' complain that the staff member in charge of the food that day wasted time "taking the temperature of the food" and couldn't understand why she "didn't just heat it up and serve it as they usually do"
Sorry about the long post/vent but I am seriously struggling here. What i have written is just a few things I dont agree with and as an parent and educator I am pretty horrified. I have tried to intervene in most of these situations to try and improve the situations to no avail and have just been looked at like im the problem! And advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
6 shifts later and all quite honestly i am quite disgusted.
These are a few issues I have:
- nursery & toddler age children are being told to 'shut up' constantly - and if they cry because they are tired and hungry (this was in nursery) they are taken out of their high chair and told 'they will have to wait now until the other children are finished for being so silly".
- after hearing a group leader talk about one of the children's siblings possibly having chicken pox she went on to apply sunscreen to her whole group - with her hands one after the other, no gloves, tissues or anything just bare hands one after the other - as does every other staff member in every other group in the centre apparently!
- the 3 oldest groups share a play ground and to say that it is poorly supervised is an understatement. The staff just find a spot to sit down and congregate in this large playground and there have been constant and countless incidents that seem to go completely unnoticed. No safety mats, no staff positioned to be able to supervise properly - nothing.
- meal times in the older rooms are outside. At tables that dont even seat the number of children that are there. There is no wiping down of tables before eating or even handwashing for the children. The children are allowed to sit on the play equipment, in the gardens and on the ground while eating and there is not supervision. They dont even seem to make sure the children have got their food or have eaten it - at all.
- the older rooms have no basic rules or structure at all that has resulted in them being completely out of control with no respect for anything or anyone. Any resources are just completley ruined. There is no packing up after themselves whatsoever and there is no opportunity for any sort of planned group experiences. Just a 2 hour clean up job for the assistant in the afternoon.
- a number of group leaders after 'the food was late' complain that the staff member in charge of the food that day wasted time "taking the temperature of the food" and couldn't understand why she "didn't just heat it up and serve it as they usually do"
Sorry about the long post/vent but I am seriously struggling here. What i have written is just a few things I dont agree with and as an parent and educator I am pretty horrified. I have tried to intervene in most of these situations to try and improve the situations to no avail and have just been looked at like im the problem! And advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!