Director’s guide
How do you run a nursery effectively?
A well-run nursery is not one where the director does everything herself. It is an organization where each piece of information is written down once, in the right place, and found again without effort. Here are the areas that matter, and how to keep on top of them in a nursery in Morocco.
Updated
The five areas a nursery director manages
| Area | What needs to be kept up to date | The common trap |
|---|---|---|
| Children and families | An up-to-date record: allergies, emergency contacts, authorized people | Information scattered between the paper file and the phone |
| Attendance | Who is here, since what time, and who each child left with | The register filled in at the end of the day, from memory |
| The child’s day | Meals, nap, nappy changes, activities, passed on to parents | Parents calling to find out whether their child has eaten |
| Team | Classes, the week’s schedule, leave, cover | A schedule that only exists in the director’s head |
| Monthly fees | Invoices, payments, late payments | Late payments discovered at the end of the month |
Organizing the team
- One lead educator per class, who knows which children she is responsible for
- The week’s schedule published in advance, showing who opens and who closes
- Leave requested in writing, and accepted or refused in writing
- A short briefing every morning: announced absences, sick children, planned outings
Writing down the daily routines
Whatever isn’t written down depends on whoever is there that day. A written routine, displayed in each class, lets a stand-in do things the way the usual team does.
- Drop-off: the child is checked in on arrival, and the parent says what the team needs to know (a restless night, medication)
- Meals: what each child ate is noted straight after the meal
- Nap: the time the child went to sleep and woke up
- Pick-up: the team checks the person is authorized, and notes their name
- Closing: every child who arrived has a departure recorded
Communicating with parents without spending your evenings on it
Choose a single official channel, and tell families from enrollment. Keep announcements for the whole nursery separate from private exchanges about one child, and set hours for replies.
WhatsApp groups mix everything: photos of every child, private questions and announcements. A digital daily log (cahier de liaison) sends each family what concerns their child, and only that.
Read next: How do you replace the paper daily log? · Nursery app or WhatsApp group: the comparison
Keeping the finances in order
Rules written into the house rules (amount, due date, absences, summer months), an invoice on a fixed date each month, every payment recorded the same day: that is what avoids awkward conversations at the end of the month.
Read next: How do you manage a nursery’s monthly fees?
Safety and children’s data
- The people authorized to collect a child are listed by the parents, with their ID
- Every accident or incident is recorded, along with a note that the parents were informed
- Allergies are on the child’s record and are checked before the menu is published
- Children’s data is personal data, protected by Law 09-08: limit who can access it, and avoid files passed around by email or on a USB stick
Read next: Child check-in and the nursery attendance register · The nursery menu and meal tracking, without allergy mistakes
A few indicators to check every week
- How full each class is, compared with its capacity
- Pending and overdue monthly fees
- Children who are often absent
- Requests on the waiting list
Where to start
Start by writing down the routines and the payment rules, then bring the information together in a single tool shared by the whole team. If you want everything in one place, you can try Hi Kiddo for free, with your real classes.
Read next: Childcare management software built for Morocco · Excel or nursery management software: which to choose?
Frequently asked questions
How much time should the director spend on admin?
It depends on the size of the nursery. The right principle: the team records things during the day, as they happen, and the director checks instead of copying out.
Does a small nursery need software?
Not necessarily. But as soon as several people record attendance and parents expect news during the day, a shared tool saves everyone time.
How do you avoid everything resting on the director?
By writing down the routines, giving each educator a class, and keeping information in a tool the whole team can consult.