Pond and childminding

[kay24]

Hi all,
I am moving house at the end of the month and my new house has a small pond in the corner of the garden. What are the regulations of ponds? As I would quite like to keep it as its a great learning tool for the children with wildlife, but I know I need to make it safe. If you have a pond (and are a childminder!) can I have some advice on what I need to do eg grid or fence of both or something else?! It also has a greenhouse but think i'm going to scrap that, bit paranoid about the whole glass thing and dont want fences everywhere!
Thanks xx :)

[Pauline]

Hi

We had a pond before we moved house this year.

There are local council rules as well as any Ofsted ones depending on the size of your pond so worth researching that.

All Ofsted want is to know that you have made it safe and secure. We bought fencing from B&Q it was nice wooden decorative fencing, we made one into a small gate so we could get to the pond, we added a catch and padlock to keep children out.

You need to consider the obvious, not too low that they can climb over, not sure but I think a minimum of 3' high, be aware that they might climb on horizontal bars, gaps between bars not too wide for a child to climb through etc.

I was worried about the whole metal grid thing so wouldn't consider that, if a child did walk on it I was worried that it might still fall through if the grid was not secured enough.

We still felt the pond was a really high risk area and made the decision NEVER to leave children outside unattended. That was easy for us as we work together but more difficult if you work alone.

Plus side was we had some good activities pond dipping, watching dragonflies emerge, seeing frogspawn and newts :thumbsup:

Quite miss it actually. :)

[Splodge]

We had a pond when we moved into our present house. We did everything we were supposed to and more. We had a high fence and a padlocked gate and it was fully risk assessed. Ofsted were happy with everything we had done.

Then i had my inspection and despite doing well throughout the inspection and being informed i would have attained a good grade, she wanted to fail me on a "safety issue" as she put it. Despite showing her that i had done everything that was required by ofsted and that ofsted were happy she was not willing to change her mind.

I ended up in tears and she went outside to phone her boss and came back in and said her boss had said that i should consider filling my pond in and that she could raise my grade to a satisfactory.

Three years later at my next inspection the inspector was lovely and appeared very experienced and also said that i had done everything asked of me and had dealt with the pond correctly. She acknowledged that i hadn't been treated well.

This was a few years ago before i had joined the forum and didn't have the confidence to do anything about it, so i lived with it for three years, and the pond has since been filled in.

While i did have the pond it was fenced and no child ever attempted to climb over it, they were given regular pond safety sessions and were never left outside on their own and like Pauline i was also worried about the metal grid idea. It's a shame that one inspector has put me off having a pond it just wasn't worth the hassle for me.

Good luck with your pond:)

[Ripeberry]

We have a pond with a metal grid and it is concreted in with a small opening for cleaning out the pond pump and that is wired shut.
Mindees are kept out anyway by a fence, but in spring and summer my own two girls like to put their hands through the grid and catch as many frogs as they can and then transfer them to a shallow tray to show the mindees on the other side of the fence.
It works well for us. We do have a greehouse, but it's made of perspex so no chance of it getting broken, well, no shards of glass anyway.

[moggy]

I laid a wrought iron gate flat over the pond, held down with rocks/logs. So tough I can stand on it! Ofsted, when I phoned to check about pond safety, said they'd be happy to look at photos and give advise on safety measures taken. Everyone was happy with my solution and children can still look in and get close to the pond .