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Dec. 29th, 2009 12:00 am"Thank you for meeting with us during the holidays, I really appreciate it." Guppy says, as the nursery manager unlocks the door. "I'm worried he's starting to pick up on the bad feeling."
"It's okay." Barney turns off the burglar alarm and leads the party towards the staff room. Alex, unaware of all the fuss, goes with Max to have his developmental checks done again. The others watch from a discreet distance; once done, Max turns the television on so that Alex can get his daily cartoon fix, then comes back into the staff room.
"Okay, let's get started with a few introductions in case anyone is unfamiliar with the others." Barney says. "I'm Barney, nursery manager. To my left is Max, Alex's psychologist, Guppy and Frances Sandhu, Alex's parents, and finally Lucy, who is our new Special Needs Assistant." He pauses, sipping his tea, then adds.
"The reason why we now have Lucy is because of this..." he waves a piece of paper, "a petition from ten of our parents threatening to withdraw their children from the nursery if we didn't expel Alex. To which I told them to go ahead, on account of this is not the X-factor and you don't get to vote kids off. To which they responded with this..." he waves a second piece of paper.
"What's that?" Guppy asks.
"A copy of their letter to Ofsted, complaining that conditions at the nursery are unsatisfactory."
"Oh man, I'm sorry Barney." Frogspawn says, wincing. "We never meant to cause you such trouble."
"Relax Frances, the nice man from Ofsted has already been here, on the last day of term, and he actually gave us a higher grade than we had before, but the recommendation that we employ someone with a special needs qualification, namely Lucy, in order to keep an extra eye on Alex and pacify the parents. And we were able to get some funding towards that, so don't worry about the cost."
"Thank you, that's a real relief." Guppy says, smiling gratefully at Barney.
"Most of the petitioning parents have in fact removed their children from the nursery, which, if I may say, is their loss. We already have new parents and kids to fill the void, so I don't think you'll be getting as much hassle from them. However, I think we still need to discuss his educational needs long term. Max, what's your verdict?"
"Alex is currently in a class of 1-2 year old children and has already worked his way through most if not all of the curriculum there. He is a gifted child and seems to do well when he's with children older than him. From what Barney has told me some of the children in the 2-3 year old class were with him last year, and have developed a certain... mature protectiveness over him. I therefore suggest you put him in the 2-3 year old class."
"I'm happy to do that." Barney says. "To be honest, I think there will come a point when we will struggle to keep him entertained. But we'll try and keep him going until he's three, if we can."
"Well that's better than we were thinking we'd be able to manage." Guppy says. "But let's see how we go. We... well, we've not announced this to anyone yet, because of all the risks and trouble we had with Alex, but we're, er, having another baby."
He waits for the horrified looks, but there aren't any.
"Congratulations!" Barney says.
"So at very least, we'd like to try and keep Alex in nursery until the new baby is born and at home, if applicable. After that we'll have some maternity and paternity leave to play with."
"I would suggest we get Alex's childcare arrangements as stable as possible before the baby is born." Max says. "Alex has demonstrated difficulties with change, if you suddenly throw his routine off he's likely to become difficult. Let's see how the next few months go, and if you still feel that you should have Alex at home all the time during Fran's maternity leave, I'll work with you on the transition in time for baby. However if he's stable, I'd recommend trying to keep childcare arrangements up, because it's going to be hard for you to be looking after him twenty four hours a day every day when you're in late pregnancy. In any case, don't worry, we'll be there for all four of you."
"Thank you." Guppy puts a protective hand over Frogspawn's belly. "You've both been fantastic, and Lucy, we look forward to working with you."
They stay a little while longer, fully briefing Lucy on the finer details of Alex's care. The young and enthusiastic assistant absorbs the information like a sponge, and they leave the meeting feeling great and positive, and for that moment, an instinct that everything is going to turn out okay.
"It's okay." Barney turns off the burglar alarm and leads the party towards the staff room. Alex, unaware of all the fuss, goes with Max to have his developmental checks done again. The others watch from a discreet distance; once done, Max turns the television on so that Alex can get his daily cartoon fix, then comes back into the staff room.
"Okay, let's get started with a few introductions in case anyone is unfamiliar with the others." Barney says. "I'm Barney, nursery manager. To my left is Max, Alex's psychologist, Guppy and Frances Sandhu, Alex's parents, and finally Lucy, who is our new Special Needs Assistant." He pauses, sipping his tea, then adds.
"The reason why we now have Lucy is because of this..." he waves a piece of paper, "a petition from ten of our parents threatening to withdraw their children from the nursery if we didn't expel Alex. To which I told them to go ahead, on account of this is not the X-factor and you don't get to vote kids off. To which they responded with this..." he waves a second piece of paper.
"What's that?" Guppy asks.
"A copy of their letter to Ofsted, complaining that conditions at the nursery are unsatisfactory."
"Oh man, I'm sorry Barney." Frogspawn says, wincing. "We never meant to cause you such trouble."
"Relax Frances, the nice man from Ofsted has already been here, on the last day of term, and he actually gave us a higher grade than we had before, but the recommendation that we employ someone with a special needs qualification, namely Lucy, in order to keep an extra eye on Alex and pacify the parents. And we were able to get some funding towards that, so don't worry about the cost."
"Thank you, that's a real relief." Guppy says, smiling gratefully at Barney.
"Most of the petitioning parents have in fact removed their children from the nursery, which, if I may say, is their loss. We already have new parents and kids to fill the void, so I don't think you'll be getting as much hassle from them. However, I think we still need to discuss his educational needs long term. Max, what's your verdict?"
"Alex is currently in a class of 1-2 year old children and has already worked his way through most if not all of the curriculum there. He is a gifted child and seems to do well when he's with children older than him. From what Barney has told me some of the children in the 2-3 year old class were with him last year, and have developed a certain... mature protectiveness over him. I therefore suggest you put him in the 2-3 year old class."
"I'm happy to do that." Barney says. "To be honest, I think there will come a point when we will struggle to keep him entertained. But we'll try and keep him going until he's three, if we can."
"Well that's better than we were thinking we'd be able to manage." Guppy says. "But let's see how we go. We... well, we've not announced this to anyone yet, because of all the risks and trouble we had with Alex, but we're, er, having another baby."
He waits for the horrified looks, but there aren't any.
"Congratulations!" Barney says.
"So at very least, we'd like to try and keep Alex in nursery until the new baby is born and at home, if applicable. After that we'll have some maternity and paternity leave to play with."
"I would suggest we get Alex's childcare arrangements as stable as possible before the baby is born." Max says. "Alex has demonstrated difficulties with change, if you suddenly throw his routine off he's likely to become difficult. Let's see how the next few months go, and if you still feel that you should have Alex at home all the time during Fran's maternity leave, I'll work with you on the transition in time for baby. However if he's stable, I'd recommend trying to keep childcare arrangements up, because it's going to be hard for you to be looking after him twenty four hours a day every day when you're in late pregnancy. In any case, don't worry, we'll be there for all four of you."
"Thank you." Guppy puts a protective hand over Frogspawn's belly. "You've both been fantastic, and Lucy, we look forward to working with you."
They stay a little while longer, fully briefing Lucy on the finer details of Alex's care. The young and enthusiastic assistant absorbs the information like a sponge, and they leave the meeting feeling great and positive, and for that moment, an instinct that everything is going to turn out okay.
