James is a Group Manager of a small (but growing) group of nurseries, he has over 20 years’ experience of working in early years and education and falls into the minority category of a ‘male working in childcare’. He is a parent so looks at things though multiple lenses when talking about the issues that currently effect the childcare sector. Here he has opened his diary to let us see his thoughts on all things Early Years and the fun and games that come with growing a small group.
October 2023 – All in one day!
Let’s set the scene, tomorrow you have set aside the day to catch up on administrative work. You have informed all of your managers that you are working from home so please only contact you in an emergency (the minute you say that out loud, you know something bad is going to happen or you’re going to be inundated with everyone’s problems!). And just like that, it happens, you wake up the next day to the world ending in all of your settings and you finish the day thinking… really? All in one day!
In this month’s diary, I talk about the unexpected challenges of running a day nursery and the extraordinary problems that need fixing. Trigger warning! I am sorry if any of these things have happened to you and the feelings they bring back up (although I highly doubt that these happen to everyone, it just seems to be people I know!).
Disclaimer: No staff or children were harmed in the making of this month’s diary and all situations were dealt with correctly, safely and reported to the necessary parties. Names have been changed to protect the innocent and easily embarrassed!
Welcome to the real-life trials and tribulations of a stressed-out Group Nursery Manager!
The Cat and the Bird!
On my daily visit to one of the sites I manage the manager calls me across to view some CCTV footage from the day before, and my heart sinks, (let’s face it, you never get a good feeling when you have review some CCTV footage). However, this day was the exception. I was watching the toddler room footage when all of a sudden, a staff member runs away from the patio doors and nearly falls over the snack table with what I can describe is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen. So good in fact we could have earnt £250 on You’ve Been Framed. Turns out the staff member was running from a bird that flew into the room after being chased by a cat. Staff are screaming (because apparently, they are scared of birds), the children are laughing and in shock, and the manager is no where to be seen as she is scared of birds the most! The cat quickly runs back out and back over the fence and the staff then spend the next 15-20 minutes trying to get the bird to exit through the patio doors whilst flying every direction but there, and as the children scream and laugh. Eventually they herd the bird out the doors, now just to get the children (and the manager) down from the ceiling…
James come quick……… and bring a saw!
It is important to say before the next tale that the child was safe, unharmed and the parents too found the funny side! One quiet (not for much longer) afternoon, I was sat in the office working my way through chasing our late payers, when I hear two baby room members of staff shout, “James come quick and bring a saw!” I can’t quite remember what was going through my mind (apart from the panic) when I got to the baby room gate and there I was greeted by ‘Jack’ who was waving at me with his head stuck through two slats of the wooden gate. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, panic or call the fire brigade (as well as already envisioning telling the parents). Like a superhero, I leapt to action, brandishing my saw and with help from my amazing team cut the gate in half (safely and away from the baby) to let him out. He thought it was funny and an adventure. We did eventually see the funny side and the parents (luckily) were great about this situation, but that evening we fixed a metal gate to the door with narrower gaps between each post!
Ribbit! Ribbit! The Wonderful world of the Midland Frog!
Fun fact that I just learnt when googling how to spell Ribbit (it’s been a long day), The only frog in the world to actually go “Ribbit” is in the Pacific Northwest known as the Pacifica Chorus Frog. Now back to the funny story. In the baby room, one calm lunchtime (not for much longer) whilst the babies were enjoying their spaghetti bolognese, a leaf (or what they thought was a leaf) flew into the room and was jumping around, now even I know leaves don’t jump. After further inspection what staff thought was a green leaf, actually turned out the be a huge frog (the huge part was slightly exaggerated). The staff started screaming (because apparently you are either sacred of frogs or birds) and the manager came running in to see the very brave room leader ‘Sarah’ was rolling around in the book corner trying to catch a jumping frog. Now as much as this would have a been a great learning experience for the children to get up close and personal with wildlife, a frog in the baby room at lunch time with screaming staff was not the best opportunity. I often think about how David Attenborough would sound narrating what actually happened that day on one of his many great wildlife programs. “Here you have the weird and wonderful world of frogs being explored, shedding new light on these charismatic, colourful, and frequently bizarre creatures. Frogs have the ability to live in some of the most extreme places on the planet, including a baby room book corner, as we go on an eye-popping journey into the fabulous lives of frogs.” I know you heard his voice in your head too whilst reading that.
The bike, the cut, and the fainter!
When you think of the term Outdoor play, you often think of words to describe it such fun, challenges, risk taking, spontaneous, problem solving and adventurous, well this next story where not just one, not two but three things happen all in the space of 5 minutes, all of those words come to mind!
Picture the scene, it’s a lovely sunny day, and visiting a setting and sat outside observing the practice, talking to the children about what they are doing when it you hear the commotion, a member of staff has got stuck in a child’s bike. Now that’s what you call getting down on the child’s level and getting stuck in…you actually do get stuck in, stuck in a child’s bike. It then takes three of us to get this staff member out though the fits of laughter from the staff and other children (and the parents when they return the next day and have all been told the funny story about ‘Leanne’ getting stuck in the bike). The was the funny part, now for the not so funny. At the same time, the manager has come outside to join in with the fun and instantly tries to catch a child jumping off a crate when one of the crates hit’s her on the knee, cutting her leg, and then she then fainted. So, to my left I have a staff member that was ‘clearly too big for that bike’ and on my right I have a dramatic manager fainting over the smallest of bumps in the word. I quickly work through the options, does she need a cold compress, mouth to mouth, an ambulance and stretcher or to just stop being so dramatic?! Once the manager came round, (we told the children she was pretending to be asleep) she found the funny side of what had happened despite scaring the living daylights out of me and everyone!
Maybe I should start to refer to myself as ‘The Fixer’ or ‘The Fireman’, but at least I don’t work in a job where every day is the same. Although, some days I will admit that I dream of boredom.
Thank you for taking the time to read these stories and although many of them were ‘you had to be there moments’ I think we can often get so stressed out with the planning, paperwork, Ofsted prep, deadlines and occupancy that it takes these silly, weird and wonderful (and sometimes scary) situations to make us stop and appreciate this amazing, fun and privileged job we have of caring and educating our future generations.
