20 Questions to Ask a Pre-school

Choosing the right pre-school for your child is an important and sometimes difficult decision. We strongly recommend that you visit any pre-school you are interested in. If you turn up unannounced you will get a good feel for the pre-school. They shouldn't mind! Go home, mull things over and make a second visit if you want. The following 'tick list' may help you in your search for the right pre-school.

	Question	Woodcote Pre-school	Pre-school 2	Pre-school 3
1.	Are you registered with OfSTED?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
2.	How many staff do you have?	7.
3.	How many qualified staff do you have?	6 qualified staff, including 5 to at least supervisor level.
4.	Of your unqualified staff, how many are training or committed to training?	1.
5.	Do you have help from volunteers in order to meet your adult: child ratios?	No.	Yes  No	Yes  No
6.	Do you employ a qualified primary school teacher for your older children?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
7.	Do you provide full day care, including lunchtime sessions?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
8.	How flexible are your sessions?	Extra sessions can be bought on the day.
9.	Do you have a minimum number of sessions?	No.	Yes  No	Yes  No
10.	Can any child attend any combination of sessions?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
11.	Do you provide hot meals?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
12.	If you serve snacks or run a lunch club, are you registered with and inspected by Environmental Health?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
13.	Is your cook/lunchtime supervisor qualified?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No
14.	Do you have the use of more than one room, so that age groups can be separated for different activities?	Yes. We have three separate rooms.	Yes  No	Yes  No
15.	Do you offer separate sessions for different age groups?	Yes. We run separate Tiddler and Plus 4 Sessions every morning.	Yes  No	Yes  No
16.	For how long have you been accepting two year olds?	Since 1999.
17.	For how long have you been accepting children in nappies?	At least 15 years, and on a discretionary basis before that.
18.	Can you cater for children needing afternoon naps?	Yes. We have an adjoining nap room.	Yes  No	Yes  No
19.	Do you offer free places to three and four year olds?	Yes. We also offer up to two free sessions a week to Income Support two year olds.	Yes  No	Yes  No
20.	Do you have disabled access and toilet facilities?	Yes.	Yes  No	Yes  No

OfSTED Reports

Our reports page provides a summary of our relevant reports.

This page was last updated on Thursday 15 July 2004 Copyright © 2003–2008 Rob Hubbard and Woodcote Pre-school Group