Working in a nursery

[roo]

Hi there! I'm new to this site so hope I've got this right!
I was just wanting to ask some questions about how things work in other people's nurseries as the problems at mine are tempting me to change jobs!

Firstly, how do your shifts/hours work?
I work 8-3.45 for three days, then 8-6 for two days, with no breaks!

Secondly, when do you get your progress records and planning work done? We have to do this all in our spare time at home.

Thirdly, what's your structure like? I feel we have so much free play that the children and me (!) end up getting fed up. I'm not sure whether it's just this nursery, or whether I need a more challenging job.

Thank you in advance!

[SamHill]

Hi, just a couple of things for you:

1. I work from 8.30 til 3.45 monday to friday - with a 30 minute break from 12.00. I attach a link to the government website re breaks. https://www.gov.uk/rest-breaks-work

2. I have scheduled 2 x 30 minutes during the week for admin. This isn't really enough and I do some at home too (I am a dep manager so have lots of admin plus key children!). It is difficult to get the time sometimes because the children take priority and that's important to me - doing it at home has less distractions anyway!

3. We have 1.5 to 2 hours a session free play, with some activities factored into the week such as music and movement and sports during that time. We also have daily circle time, a group snack time and whole class story time. I work in a Montessori setting so we have some formal learning activities for our individual key children that we do as well as following the EYFS during the free play sessions.

Hope that helps.

[roo]

Thanks very much for replying - it was really helpful :)