School Starter

[lpatters]

A little girl I care for will be starting full time school in Sept. She turns 4 is August will be one of the younger schoolies.

If I was to still care for her after school, would I still need to do obs on her as she is still an early years child?

Am I also right in thinking she would no longer be classed as one of my under 5's as she will be in school? This always confuses me 'a maximum of three may be young children (a child is a young child until 1st September following their 5th birthday).' This seems to me that she'd be an under 5 until Sept next year?

[bunyip]

Technically, the child is in the EY age group until 1st September following their 5th birthday.

For the purpose of ratios, see EYFS section 3.42:

If children aged 4 and 5 only attend the childminding setting before and/or after a normal school day, and/or during schhool holidays, they may be cared for at the same time as 3 other young children.

The terms "EY children" and "young children" are interchangeable in this context. You'll also find them referred to as "rising 5's": a term in fairly common usage amongst childcarers, though not one ever found in EYFS documents.

Note the term "normal" school day. It means "full time schooling". So if, like ours, your school starts the reception class with half-days for the first 2 weeks, that is not a "normal" school day. Put simply, the child will count against your EY numbers until she starts to attend for the full school day.

[redtiger21]

I'm actually interested in this post too, on the paperwork side of things, as I have one moving up to reception full time straight away in Sept, and wondering what learning and development paperwork to do for her. I know what the eyfs states, but in terms of actual real life, what do other CMs of reception year children do?

[chris goodyear]

Can't remember where exactly I found this info but I read somewhere that the paperwork is done by where the child spends most of the time so for a school child even though technically a young child they would spend more hours at school that at the childminders (unless they attend for ridiculously long hours!) so I don't carry on with obs etc once they start full time school. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.