P.Miracle
02-06-2010, 01:08 AM
This post was just some information for those who might be interested in working in partnership with their local college to get free assistants in the form of students.
It's a win-win situation for you, your college, the children and the students. You get free assistants, the students get the childcare experience they need to complete their qualification and the adult:child ratio in your setting increases which is a positive thing as children would recieve more attention, plus the safety aspects and the input of someone else ideas for activities!
I'm sure every college has it's own way of doing things, but I guess they all roughly follow the same procedures, so I'll share my story of how I've come to put it in place in my setting.
I called up my local college, told them I was a registered childminder who cared for children aged 0-8 yrs old and said I was interested in providing voluntary postition fors students who needed childcare experience as part of completing their qualification. The recepetion patched me throught to the right people who were very friendly and helpful.
Someone from the college came out to see me to find out more about the childcare service I provide and to tell me more about the students (like the CRB checks, how many students I would like to have, when students would come to my setting, how long for, and about the college's health and safety stuff).
(Phew)
I wrote to my mindees' families and explained to them about the partnership and shared my thoughts about how it would impact my setting and why I thought it would be a positive thing for everyone. I also asked my parents for permission if they were happy for this partnership to go ahead. The information letter I sent to them is included as an attachment to this post.
The students I am recieveing will be Level 2/3 students who have already completed 1 year of thier studies. Most will have already had experience of working with children. They all undergo an enhanced CRB as part of their college course and because they are only placed with you for a term before moving on, they don't need a serperate CRB to come into your setting as they will be staying with you for 3 months or less (but double check with your local Ofsted as this may differ).
So what happenes now is that someone from the college comes to risk assess and take health and safety details of my setting (so that it's risk assessed for a student) and after that, students can come to my setting to help out starting with the new term in September.
Hope you find this helpful!
It's a win-win situation for you, your college, the children and the students. You get free assistants, the students get the childcare experience they need to complete their qualification and the adult:child ratio in your setting increases which is a positive thing as children would recieve more attention, plus the safety aspects and the input of someone else ideas for activities!
I'm sure every college has it's own way of doing things, but I guess they all roughly follow the same procedures, so I'll share my story of how I've come to put it in place in my setting.
I called up my local college, told them I was a registered childminder who cared for children aged 0-8 yrs old and said I was interested in providing voluntary postition fors students who needed childcare experience as part of completing their qualification. The recepetion patched me throught to the right people who were very friendly and helpful.
Someone from the college came out to see me to find out more about the childcare service I provide and to tell me more about the students (like the CRB checks, how many students I would like to have, when students would come to my setting, how long for, and about the college's health and safety stuff).
(Phew)
I wrote to my mindees' families and explained to them about the partnership and shared my thoughts about how it would impact my setting and why I thought it would be a positive thing for everyone. I also asked my parents for permission if they were happy for this partnership to go ahead. The information letter I sent to them is included as an attachment to this post.
The students I am recieveing will be Level 2/3 students who have already completed 1 year of thier studies. Most will have already had experience of working with children. They all undergo an enhanced CRB as part of their college course and because they are only placed with you for a term before moving on, they don't need a serperate CRB to come into your setting as they will be staying with you for 3 months or less (but double check with your local Ofsted as this may differ).
So what happenes now is that someone from the college comes to risk assess and take health and safety details of my setting (so that it's risk assessed for a student) and after that, students can come to my setting to help out starting with the new term in September.
Hope you find this helpful!