Experience.FellowshipOne.com

I was hoping I could get some input both from fellow F1 users and also the admin staff about our Preschool set-up.

 Currently we have the preschool children broken up into groups (ex. Turtle) by age, and then into one of two rooms per group (ex. Turtle A and Turtle B) so that the teachers are better able to teach. In the past we have broken those groups up according to age, but that has left us with instances where one teacher has 12 of the children and the other teacher may only have 3. Obviously we need a new plan.

 I am thinking some breakout groups may be the best way to handle this, but wanted to get some input. Am I thinking in the right direction? How does your church handle this?

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Whitney Storey
Database Manager
East Bayou Church
(337)-984-8291

We have everything broken up by age, as you were describing, but our set-up is where the difference is made. All of our activity groups, when necessary, are set on the Balance class size. When we have multiple rooms open (usually 3-5 in each age group), F1 does it for us. We do have a portal person actively managing and communicating between check-in and each hall monitor though. This means that if a class starts to get full we may close it and let another one even out first. Hope that helps, that's worked for us for several years now.

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Jonathan Malinaric
Children's Ministry Guest Relations
New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
A Family Ministry Center

www.newlifechurch.org

That is helpful! Thank you!

I am also seriously considering getting rid of assignments completely for preschool as they don't have any normalcy when it comes to how many kids come in each age group every week. There are really no trends. Although I was opposed to the idea of not using assignments at first, I think in the long run it would be easier not to.

We can do all of our reporting through attendance (which is better, anyway).

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Whitney Storey
Database Manager
East Bayou Church
(337)-984-8291

I would reccomend excluding assignments from preschool; just let it "best age fit" when they walk up.  If you have a child or two that must be in a certain class (special needs for example), give them an assignment and it will trump the best age fit.