A nursery that runs well runs on systems, not memory. When everything is going smoothly, owners often believe they don't need a checklist — they just know what to do. The problem is that "just knowing" breaks down the moment there's an absence, a safeguarding concern, an Ofsted call, or simply a bad morning. A daily operations checklist exists for the hard days, not the easy ones.
Before the first child arrives
These checks happen before the session opens, every morning:
- Staffing confirmation — every member of staff on today's rota has confirmed they're coming in. If anyone is absent, cover is arranged before children arrive.
- Ratio check — confirm staff coverage against today's expected attendance, including breaks and lunch, and verify ratios are met at every point in the day.
- Premises check — walk the indoor and outdoor spaces. Note anything that presents a safety hazard and address it before children enter.
- Fire safety check — test fire alarm if it's your weekly test day. Confirm fire exits are clear and unlocked.
- Medication review — check whether any children attending today have a current medication administration form and that medication is in date, correctly stored, and accessible to the right staff member.
- Allergy and dietary check — confirm today's attending children against the allergy register, particularly if a different member of staff is covering meals.
- Enquiry log — check for any new enquiries that came in overnight or first thing — email, website form, Facebook messages.
During the session
- Register — accurate record of every child present, arrival time, and who they were signed in by. This is a legal requirement.
- Ratio monitoring — continuous awareness of how many children are present against how many staff are actively supervising. Ratios drop when staff take breaks — ensure handover is explicit.
- Incident and accident recording — any incident, however minor, logged at the time with details and countersigned by a parent at collection. Not at the end of the day — at the time.
- Safeguarding observations — any concern about a child's wellbeing, behaviour change, or disclosure logged and reported to the DSL before the child leaves the building.
- Follow-up calls or messages — any enquiries from the previous 48 hours that haven't received a response or follow-up.
End of day
- Register close — every child signed out, departure time logged, collected by an authorised person.
- Accident log countersignatures — confirm any incidents from today have been signed by the relevant parent.
- Premises security — windows closed, gates secured, any lone working staff checked in.
- Medication return — any medication brought in for the day returned to parent with record updated.
- Staff communications — anything that needs to be passed to tomorrow's team noted in writing, not verbally.
- Tomorrow's staffing — quick confirmation that tomorrow's rota is covered and any changes are communicated.
Weekly checks
Some checks don't need to happen daily but must happen reliably each week:
- Fire alarm test (same day, same time, logged)
- First aid kit contents check
- Review of compliance calendar — anything due in the next 30 days
- Enquiry pipeline review — anything that's been sitting in the same stage for more than five days
- Occupancy check — current filled vs available places, any immediate gaps to address
The morning brief
The best-run nurseries start each day with a brief — two minutes where the manager confirms the day's key information with the team: staffing, attendance, any children with specific needs or concerns, any incidents from yesterday that staff should be aware of, and any visitors expected. It takes less time than most people spend making coffee. It means every member of staff starts the day informed rather than reactive.
The challenge for owner-managers is that producing this brief takes time and mental bandwidth at the busiest point of the day. Which is exactly why automating it — or at minimum having a system generate the inputs — matters more than it might seem.