Run your nursery on a system, not on one manager's memory
A complete operations kit for preschools, nurseries and daycare centres: ratios and rosters, the daily routine, safety, safeguarding, families, fees, staff and quality, ready to print and use this week.
- A 20-sheet workbook that checks your roster against ratio every half hour, logs hourly ratio checks and runs fees, funded hours and ageing
- Fillable registration, safety, sleep, medication and safeguarding records, plus a 7-page print pack for the room walls
- A parent handbook, 8 policies (safeguarding outlines for qualified review), 20 one-page SOPs and 52 messages
- A calculator for places, staffing and break-even fees, a KPI card with formulas and a dated rules sheet by country
The Preschool and Daycare Operations Kit · Bodhih Pro Kits · 252 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
How do you run a nursery or daycare centre day to day?
You run a nursery by planning places and fees by room, rostering staff to your regulator's ratios every half hour, following a written routine, checking rooms, sleep and allergies daily, safeguarding with a named lead, invoicing on set dates and reviewing a few numbers weekly. The Preschool and Daycare Operations Kit by Bodhih Training covers each step.
Want the full free guide first? Read How to Plan Staff-to-Child Ratios and Rosters in a Nursery.
You already feel the problem. Here is what it is costing you.
Ratios held together by a paper roster
One sick call at 07:25 and the manager is in the hallway counting children against adults. A break swap at lunchtime can leave a room short without anyone noticing.
Safety checks that depend on memory
Room checks, sleep checks, allergy plates and medication permissions all happen, most days. The day one is missed is the day it matters.
Money that is hard to see by room
Occupancy looks fine by headcount, fees arrive late, funded hours confuse families, and nobody knows which room actually pays the rent.
Inspection panic
Policies are rewritten the week before, records live in five places, and the honest picture of quality only appears when someone asks for it.
Picture the next few weeks with the kit open beside you.
Picture Monday at 07:25. The phone still rings, but you open Roster Cover, see which rooms have spare cover and which need the bank practitioner, and every room is in ratio before the first family arrives.
As you walk the rooms, the ratio board is on the wall, the room checklist was done before the doors opened, the allergy plates are named, and the poster by the door has your safeguarding lead's name on it. Notice how calm it feels when the checks happen without anyone having to remember them.
At the end of the month you change one date on Settings and read occupancy, ratio checks, incidents per 1,000 child-hours, fee ageing and contribution by room on one dashboard, then choose five actions for next month.
Whether you start with the posters this afternoon or the rooms and staff sheets tomorrow morning, you can begin running your setting on a written system this week, at your own pace.
20 files that do the work for you
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The Preschool and Daycare Operations Kit (e-book, PDF)
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Start here: setting operations map
The whole job in ten steps with the file for each, your first hour, 'brand it in five minutes', your first week and a 30/60/90 day plan.
Early Years Setting Workbook
20-sheet workbook: settings, rooms and ratio rules, child register with alert flags, waiting list, occupancy, staff records with check and renewal flags, weekly roster, half-hourly roster cover against ratio, hourly ratio checks, fees and invoices with funded hours and ageing, incidents, daily safety checks, training and supervision, parent communications, quality self-evaluation, room P&L and three dashboards.
Places, fees and staffing calculator
Five-sheet planning calculator: staff needed per room from your ratios and occupancy, staff cost with a cover allowance, contribution per room and per place, occupancy scenarios from 50% to 100%, and the break-even and target-margin daily fee.
Registration, consent and settling-in forms
Brand-ready fillable forms: child registration, parents and parental responsibility, emergency contacts and authorised collection with a password, health and dietary information, photo, outing, sun cream and medication consents, and a settling-in plan with review.
Health and safety records
Fillable records: the 16-point daily room safety checklist, a 10-point outdoor check, the accident and incident record, a medication administration record and a sleep check log.
Safeguarding concern record
Confidential fillable forms: the staff concern record (child's exact words, what was seen, handed to the DSL), the DSL's actions and decision, a chronology of concerns, and the record for a concern or allegation about an adult.
Staff supervision and induction records
Fillable staff records: a supervision meeting record (wellbeing, key children, safeguarding, suitability, development, actions) and a two-week induction checklist starting with safety.
Parent handbook and policy templates
Brand-ready Word templates with [SETTING NAME] placeholders: a 14-section parent handbook and 8 policies (fees and late collection, safeguarding outline for qualified review, phones and cameras, intimate care outline, illness and exclusion notice, medication and allergy, complaints, privacy notice).
SOP manual for an early years setting
Brand-ready Word manual of 20 one-page SOPs: opening, arrival, ratio checks and break cover, meals and allergies, sleep checks, nappy changing, outdoor play, outings, medication, accidents, illness, visitors, collection, uncollected child, missing child, fire drill, lockdown, safeguarding concerns, photos and devices, closing.
Message library for families and staff
Brand-ready Word library of 52 messages and scripts in 8 groups: welcome and settling in, daily updates, incidents, health and safety, fees and money, closures and changes, families and meetings, complaints, and staff messages.
Worked example pack: a 60-place nursery's month
The kit's main records completed for one composite case: Acorn and Kite Nursery, a 60-place, three-room setting in Leeds, through September 2026: the ratio roster and the break clash it caught, one ratio breach, an allergy near miss handled end to end, a funded-hours fee query, room P&L, fee ageing and an inspection-readiness review.
AI prompt pack for early years settings
26 tool-agnostic prompts in 6 groups (business, rosters and ratios, routine and families, policies and safety, staff, quality), each with what to paste in and what to check, plus the no-child-data rule.
Ratio and rostering decision card
The ratio arithmetic, ten 'if this, do this, never that' rows for the moments ratios slip, and rostering in five moves.
Early years manager mistakes card
Twenty common mistakes in running a setting, each with what to do instead.
Numbers that matter: KPI card
Fourteen numbers with plain-words definitions, exact formulas, where each lives in the workbook and what to do if it moves.
Early years rules by country (October 2026)
Dated orientation on registration, inspection, ratios, background checks, frameworks, child safety changes and data protection for England and the UK nations, India, the US, Australia, Singapore, the UAE, the Philippines and others.
90-day setting operations calendar
36 events: set-up in the first week, weekly management meetings and roster checks, SOP walk-throughs, fire drills, supervision rounds, month-end closes, a fee review, parents' meetings, a quality review and a quarter retrospective. Import into Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar.
Setting operations task board
38 set-up and operating tasks with list, owner, due day, priority and the kit file to use. Import into Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira.
Setting floor print pack
7 wall-ready pages: room ratio board, daily room safety checklist, sleep check card, allergy and medication alert sheet with consent note, 'if you are worried about a child' staff poster, authorised collection card and a missing child poster.
Chapter by chapter
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
- Format
- PDF e-book + XLSX + fillable PDF + DOCX + printable PDF + ICS + CSV
- Files
- 20 files plus a one-click ZIP
- E-book
- 62 pages
- Works with
- Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Word, Google Docs, Acrobat Reader, Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, Trello, Asana, Notion
- Best for
- One-site preschools, nurseries, kindergartens, daycare centres and after-school clubs of about 15 to 150 children
- Currency and rules
- Any currency; ratios typed from your own regulator
The 07:25 Phone Call
Why a setting should not run on one manager's memory, the house model (safeguarding roof, six pillars, records foundation) and how to use the kit.
The Business of Places
Places, FTE occupancy, fees, funding and staff cost; why ratios make each room's economics different; break-even and contribution per room.
Registration, Rooms and Ratios as the Law Sets Them
Registration in general terms, rooms by age band, typing ratios and qualification rules from your regulator, who counts in ratio, and staff record flags.
Rostering to Ratio Across the Whole Day
Rostering from expected children per half hour, placing breaks, the Roster Cover check, hourly ratio counts and what to do when a count fails.
The Daily Routine and the Key Person
Arrival and departure handovers, the routine in one-page SOPs, the key person approach, and frameworks named with observation records.
Safeguarding and Child Protection
The safeguarding structure: DSL, safer recruitment, code of conduct, phones and cameras, intimate care, collection, missing child, reporting and allegations.
Health, Safety, Food and Allergies
Daily room checks, risk assessments, safe sleep, the allergy and medication chain, illness exclusion by health authority guidance, accidents and drills.
Families: Settling In, Communication, Inclusion and Complaints
Registration and consents, settling in, daily updates, the communication log, inclusion and referral routes, complaints and feedback.
Fees, Funding and Getting Paid
A fees policy families can read, funded hours, invoicing from the workbook, late collection, refunds and an ageing-based chasing routine.
Staff: Safer Recruitment, Induction, Supervision and Keeping Good People
Safer recruitment in practice, induction that starts with safety, supervision, the training tracker, 70-20-10 learning and retention.
Quality, Inspection Readiness, Data and AI
How regulators look at quality now, a termly self-evaluation, fourteen numbers that matter, children's data and photos, and AI with no child data.
The Setting That Runs Without Anyone Holding Their Breath
What a predictable setting looks like, and how to start this week.
The Policy and Procedure Map
A map of the policies and procedures a setting needs and where each lives in the kit.
Plain-Words Glossary
Plain-words definitions of the operations terms used in the kit.
Not just reading. Tools you will actually open again.
E-book
- The Preschool and Daycare Operations Kit e-book: about 9,900 words, ten chapters, six diagrams, a policy and procedure map and a glossary
Start here
- 00-Start-Here-Setting-Operations-Map: the job in ten steps with the file for each, your first hour, brand it in five minutes, your first week and a 30/60/90 day plan
Workbooks
- Early Years Setting Workbook (20 sheets): settings, rooms and ratio rules, child register with alert flags, waiting list, occupancy, staff records with check flags, roster, half-hourly roster cover against ratio, hourly ratio checks, fees and invoices with funded hours and ageing, incidents, safety checks, training and supervision, parent communications, quality self-evaluation, room P&L and three dashboards
- Places, Fees and Staffing Calculator (5 sheets): staff needed per room, staff cost, contribution per room and place, occupancy scenarios and the break-even fee
Forms (fillable PDF)
- Registration, consent and settling-in forms (5 forms, brand-ready)
- Health and safety records (5 forms: daily room safety checklist, outdoor check, accident and incident record, medication administration record, sleep check log)
- Safeguarding concern record (4 forms: concern record, DSL decision, chronology, concern about an adult)
- Staff supervision and induction records (2 forms)
Word templates (brand-ready)
- Parent handbook and policy templates (handbook plus 8 policies, including safeguarding and intimate care outlines for qualified review)
- SOP manual for an early years setting (20 one-page SOPs)
- Message library for families and staff (52 messages and scripts)
- Worked example pack: a 60-place nursery's month
- AI prompt pack for early years settings (26 prompts)
Cheat sheets
- Ratio and rostering decision card (10 if-this-do-this rows)
- Early years manager mistakes card (20 mistakes and what to do instead)
- Numbers that matter: KPI card (14 numbers with exact formulas)
- Early years rules by country (dated October 2026)
Print pack
- Setting floor print pack (7 pages): room ratio board, daily room safety checklist, sleep check card, allergy and medication alert sheet, 'if you are worried about a child' poster, authorised collection card and missing child poster
Calendar and import
- 90-day setting operations calendar (36 events, ICS)
- Setting operations task board (38 tasks, CSV for Trello, Asana, Notion, Planner or Jira)
When you have worked through it, you will be able to…
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
- Type your regulator's ratios once and check a whole week's roster against them, half hour by half hour
- Run hourly ratio counts, daily room checks, sleep checks and allergy plate checks with simple records
- Set up the safeguarding structure: a named DSL, a concern record, collection passwords and a missing child procedure
- Measure occupancy by FTE, contribution per room and the break-even fee before you change prices
- Invoice with funded hours, track ageing and chase every family the same fair way
- Track background checks, first aid, training and supervision so nobody slips through
- Self-evaluate each term and read fourteen numbers that show how the setting is really doing
- Use AI for office drafts with no child data and a person approving every output
Know your starting point. Prove your progress.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
Early Years & Childcare Practice Judgment
Take the assessment →AssessAll assessmentFrontline Safety Leadership Judgment
Take the assessment →AssessAll assessmentSpeak-Up: Raising a Concern and Hearing One
Take the assessment →JobularyLearn by doing: the 70-20-10 model explained (Jobulary)
Make it a growth plan →A taste of Chapter 1
Ratios make the economics of each age band different, and that is the law working as intended. A baby room at one adult to three babies needs four adults for twelve children. A preschool room at one adult to eight children needs the same four adults for up to thirty-two. Fees for babies are higher, but rarely high enough to close that gap, so a baby room can run at a thin contribution while the older rooms earn the margin, as the example below shows. Ratios also round up. Seventeen children at 1:8 need three adults; so do twenty-four. The seventeenth child costs you a whole extra adult; the next seven cost almost nothing in staff. That step is why occupancy in the older rooms matters so much, and why a few empty preschool places cost more than they seem.
The honest comparison
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratios | A static ratio chart | Ratios typed from your regulator drive a half-hourly roster check and hourly ratio log |
| Safety records | Blank forms | Room, outdoor, sleep, medication and accident records, logged with flags and a dashboard |
| Safeguarding | A copied policy | An outline for qualified review, a concern record with DSL decision and chronology, and a staff poster |
| Money | A fee list | Invoices with funded hours and ageing, room P&L, contribution per place and a break-even calculator |
| Law and rules | One country's assumptions | A dated sheet for England and the UK nations, India, the US, Australia, Singapore, UAE, Philippines and more |
| Floor use | Files that stay on a laptop | A 7-page print pack for room walls, the sleep room and the front door |
Made for you if…
- Owners and directors of preschools, nurseries, kindergartens, playschools and daycare centres
- Centre managers and deputies who build the roster and answer for ratios
- Principals of small private and international schools with an early years section
- Administrators who run registration, invoices, funded hours and records
- After-school club and childcare centre operators with 15 to 150 children
- New owners setting up their first setting's systems
Probably not for you if…
- Parents hiring a nanny or caring for a toddler at home (see the Childcare Hiring and Management Kit and Toddler and Preschool at Home)
- Anyone looking for a ready-to-adopt legal safeguarding policy without a qualified review
- Child development, health or curriculum teaching: this kit is business and operations
Built by trainers, tested in real rooms.
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
From here to using it in three steps
- STEP 1
Tap Get the kit
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
- STEP 2
Download instantly
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
- STEP 3
Open the first tool
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
Put the system on the wall this week
Print the ratio board and the room checklist, write your safeguarding lead's name on the poster, and run next week's roster through Roster Cover. Whether you begin with one room or all of them, you can start running your setting on a written system today.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
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The Preschool and Daycare Operations Kit: FAQs
Read the free guideAlready bought? Resend my linkCan I use this with my staff?
Yes. Within your own setting you can print the posters and records, share the SOPs, policies and messages with your team, and use the workbooks with your managers and room leaders under the personal licence. For a group of settings or a company-wide licence, contact solutions@bodhih.com.
Does it work in my country?
The method works anywhere children are cared for in rooms with ratios. The workbooks take any currency, a tax placeholder and the ratios you type from your own regulator. Laws on registration, ratios, checks, safeguarding, funding and data differ, so they sit in a dated sheet covering England and the UK nations, India, the US, Australia, Singapore, the UAE, the Philippines and others. Always check your regulator and local rules.
How do I work out staff-to-child ratios for a room?
Divide the children present by the number of children each adult may care for under your regulator's rules, round up, and never go below the room minimum. Then count only adults your regulator allows to count in ratio. The kit's Roster Cover sheet does this for every half hour of a planned week.
Does the kit include a safeguarding policy I can adopt?
It includes a safeguarding and child protection policy outline, an intimate care outline and a phones and cameras policy, with a concern record and staff poster. The outlines must be completed and reviewed by someone qualified in child safeguarding for your area before you adopt them. Nothing in the kit replaces that review or your local procedures.
How should a nursery handle unpaid fees?
Use a written fees policy, invoice on set dates, send the same friendly reminder and second reminder to every family, then talk privately and agree a written payment plan. The fees sheet shows ageing so nothing drifts, and the message library has the wording.
Is this legal, medical or financial advice?
No. It is educational operating guidance and templates. Ratios, safeguarding, health and exclusion, food, funding, fees and data rules are set by your regulator, health and food authorities and local law. Check them, and your lawyer and accountant, before you rely on anything. It gives no medical advice.
Does it promise higher occupancy, better inspection grades or profit?
No kit can promise results. It gives you the systems, records and numbers to run a setting consistently and show your practice; what changes depends on your setting, team, families and market.
Can I use AI with it?
Yes, for office drafts such as newsletters, SOPs and job adverts, with prompts in the pack. Never paste children's names, photos, health or safeguarding information into a public AI tool, and never let AI decide anything about a child, ratios or a person.
How can I measure my team's starting point?
AssessAll offers separate assessments that fit this work: Early Years and Childcare Practice Judgment, Frontline Safety Leadership Judgment, and Speak-Up: Raising a Concern and Hearing One. They are not included in the kit.
How do I turn supervision findings into a development plan?
Pick two or three skills from supervision and the quality review, then plan most of the learning on the floor, some from colleagues and a little from courses. Jobulary explains the 70-20-10 model step by step at jobulary.com/blog/70-20-10-model-explained.
How much does The Preschool and Daycare Operations Kit cost?
₹999 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $29 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
How do I get the files after paying?
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
What software do I need?
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Can I get a refund?
Because it is a digital download, kits are not refundable once downloaded. We always refund a duplicate charge or a failed delivery, and if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days. Full terms: bodhih.org/refunds.
Can my company buy this for a team?
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
