Okay, heres the drill
I care for one child aged 5 (his birthday being 31 October 2004) and is in reception. I have him after school term time only. Mon - Fri
I have recently been approached by another parent who requires exactly the same thing, (his birthdate being 30 June 2005)
Both children are now in full time education.
My cert states that:
may care for no more than 4 children under 8 years of age, not more than 1 maybe in the early years age group, and of these none may be under 1 year at any one time
Initially when I rang ofsted they said that as one child was aged 5 and in full time education they dont come into the early years age group
When I queried the subnote of my cert "The early years age group is children from birth to 31 August after their fifth birthday" all of a sudden the guy I spoke to said that I needed to apply for a variance.
Okay, not a prob looked at the variance form and checked the guidelines and this says
Each childminder may care for:
a maximum of six children under the age of eight;
■ of these six children, a maximum of three may be young children
■ however where four- and five-year-old children only attend the childminding setting before and/or after a normal school day, they may be classed as children over the age of five for the purposes of the adult:child ratio;
Arrrrrrghhhhh!!! Do I need to apply for a variance?! I am thinking that I do not considering that both children are aged 4 and 5 and in full time education and in this case I will not be exceeding my numbers?!
What do you think?! I have a sneaky suspiscion that only one of them requires me on a short time basis and therefore I think by the time my variance (if i should need it) come through they will no longer require me!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. (I have an eight, four yr old (preschool) and 4 month old baby as my own children and am not childminding anyone else, if this helps)
Thank you in advance! x x x
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