Summer Term Ready: The Early Years Manager's Preparation Checklist

The summer term brings leavers, new starters, room moves, key person changes, and funding updates all arriving at the same time. For nursery managers, it's the most complex administrative period of the year — and the one most likely to expose gaps in your systems.

This checklist covers the key preparation areas. Work through it before the term starts, and summer becomes manageable. Leave it to the first week back, and you'll spend the first month playing catch-up.

Six weeks before the term starts

Confirm summer term funding dates with your local authority Term dates, headcount dates, and funding rates for summer may differ from spring. Get them confirmed in writing now and put the headcount date prominently in the diary.

Review your September cohort Who is leaving in August? Who is starting in September? Map out the transition so you can plan room moves and key person assignments.

Begin the new starter onboarding process For children starting in September: have registration forms gone out? Has the settling-in programme been arranged? Are parental declarations for funded children in hand?

Review staff rota requirements Does the summer cohort require any room configuration changes? Are your current ratios adequate for the planned occupancy?

Four weeks before the term starts

Chase outstanding parental declarations Every funded child for summer term needs a valid declaration before the headcount date. Start chasing now, not the week before submission.

Check 30-hour eligibility codes Codes need to have been reconfirmed within the past three months. Which children are relying on a 30-hour code that may have lapsed over the Easter break?

Plan room moves and key person handovers Children moving rooms need their key person to know they're coming. Existing observations, progress notes, and any safeguarding notes should be transferred and confirmed in the new key person's name.

Review staffing for the holiday period Summer term includes half term, bank holidays, and often staff annual leave concentrated in July and August. Plan cover for ratio-critical periods now.

Two weeks before the term starts

Run a pre-headcount reconciliation Check your funded child list against your register. Does every funded child have:

• A valid, signed parental declaration?
• A confirmed eligibility code where applicable (with reconfirmation date)?
• Agreed funded hours documented?

Prepare your headcount submission Don't wait until the day before. Draft your submission early so you have time to address any queries from your local authority.

Update your single central record Are DBS certificates up to date? Any new staff who joined over the Easter break? Any students or volunteers starting in summer?

Check expiring training Which staff members have training certificates — safeguarding, paediatric first aid, food hygiene — expiring during summer term? Book refreshers now before available slots disappear.

First week of term

Confirm attendance expectations for new starters For children in settling-in, attendance may be partial and funded claims should reflect actual attendance. Brief your room leaders on what to record.

Communicate the summer programme to parents Dates, events, holiday closure days, key person changes, any additional activity sessions. Getting this out in week one reduces questions throughout the term.

Hold a term briefing with room leaders What's different this term? What are the cohort compositions? Any safeguarding updates or children requiring particular attention? A 30-minute briefing before children arrive sets the tone.

An honest note on preparation

The settings that handle summer term well are not the ones with the most experienced managers or the largest teams. They're the ones with the clearest systems. When you know exactly what needs to be done, and when, and who is responsible, the complexity becomes manageable.

If you're consistently finding that the start of each new term reveals gaps that then take weeks to close, the answer is usually a systems review rather than more effort. What data is missing? What process doesn't happen until it's too late? What would earlier visibility have prevented?

That's a conversation we're happy to have with any manager considering a new system.

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