📱 The JLK Staff Hub: Training Day

Before the day

Most training days that go wrong go wrong in the first ten minutes, on a forgotten code or a flat tablet. Work through this the week before.

• Every member of staff has their staff code (JLK-XXXX-XXXX) and knows the name it is registered under. They sign in with first name, last name and code; role and nursery come from the registry, so check those are right too (Owner Hub → Staff & access).
• Every tablet is set up for its nursery. A director does this once on the tablet itself, with their director staff code (Owner Hub → Tablets & PINs). Charge them overnight and bring chargers.
• Everyone has a tablet PIN and a face. In Tablets & PINs, press Send PIN for anyone without one (a random PIN is emailed to them; nobody else sees it) and take their photo with 📷 Photo. Without a PIN the tablet shows “No PIN yet” under their name and will not let them in.
• Phones charged, with mobile data. Tell staff the day before to bring their phone charged and to know their phone's own PIN or passcode (they will need it to install the app).
• Wi-Fi: plan for mobile data. Our Mobile Phone and Electronic Device Use policy says No personal device is allowed to be connected to the nursery Wi-Fi at any time. Staff phones stay on mobile data. If signal is poor where you are holding the day, pair people up so each pair has one phone that works.
• Phones are allowed all day today. The same policy says phones can only be used on a designated break and then this must be away from the children. Today is different: there are no children on the premises and the phones are the training, so the directors have agreed staff use their phones all day (owner, 11 Oct 2026). Say this at the start, and say that tomorrow the usual rule applies again.
• Projector or big screen, with a laptop signed into the Hub as you (for showing staff pages) and a tablet you can mirror or hold up for the tablet sessions.
• Print: one sign-off checklist and one Hub quick card per person; the pocket cards (A4, four to a sheet) for session 7; and this guide for yourself.
• Ask room leaders to read session 9 and the roles page for their group (roles.html) before the day; one of them leads the staff breakout while you run the managers' session.
• Check the tablet demo works on a phone. Open justlittlekidz.co.uk/staff/kiosk.html?demo=1. It shows invented staff, any four digits work as a PIN, and nothing reaches the real records. Staff use it in session 3 to practise without touching real clock-ins or real visitors.

The day at a glance

Running late? Sessions 7 and 8 can shrink to 15 minutes each. Don't cut session 3 or session 4.

What to show

• The Staff Hub on the big screen (staff-hub.html). Scroll it once, top to bottom, without stopping: the search box, Who to go to at your nursery, the 📣 For you notices, 👀 Look out for today, then the sections: Something happened — record it · Observations & EYFS · Planning & the day · Time & pay · Learning & development · Policies & guidance · The team.
• Then the tablet: hold one up, or mirror it. The faces, the clock, a card rotating underneath.

The ground rules

1. Your own phone is for your own things, on your break or at home. The Mobile Phone and Electronic Device Use policy is clear that personal phones are not accessed during working hours. That is why the nursery tablet exists: anything you need to do on the floor is on the tablet.
2. The tablet is shared, so it is never left signed in. You tap your face, enter your PIN, do the job, press Done. Your PIN is yours alone; never tell it to anyone or let someone sign in as you.
3. Never a child's name in Discord. Discord is for the team: announcements, celebrations, day-to-day. Nothing that identifies a child goes there, not a name, not a photo, not initials with a room. Children's details belong only in the forms built for them, and in Ovivio.

To ensure the safety and well-being of children we do not allow staff to use personal mobile phones or other personal devices with imaging and sharing capabilities during working hours.From our Mobile Phone and Electronic Device Use policy

What to show

1. Signing in. Go to justlittlekidz.co.uk/staff/welcome.html. Type First name, Last name and Your staff access code, then Unlock →. Role and nursery are not asked for: they come from the staff registry.
2. Installing it as an app. On the Staff Hub, a yellow box says 📱 Install the JLK Staff Hub on your phone. iPhone, in Safari: Share → Add to Home Screen. Android, in Chrome: menu ⋮ → Install app. The box disappears once it is installed. It appears on the home screen as JLK Staff Hub.
3. The menu bar along the top of the Hub: 🏠 Staff Hub · 📋 Induction · 🎓 Academy · 🎯 Training · 🕒 Timesheet · ⏰ My hours · 🎖 My CPD.
4. Notices. The 📣 For you box on the Hub shows what has been sent to you; it hides itself when there is nothing. All notices → opens the Notices page, with Unread, Everything and Mark everything as read. Nothing disappears once read. What you have read is remembered on the server, so the tablet and your phone agree.
5. Find an answer. The search box at the top of the Hub: ask in your own words. Answers come from our policies, the Staff Handbook, the portal and our website.
6. Who to go to at your nursery, near the top of the Hub, opens on your own nursery.

What to show: signing in and the clock (20 min)

1. The faces screen. “Tap your name, then enter your PIN.” A face is a photo or initials. Anyone without a PIN shows No PIN yet; a director sets it up.
2. The PIN. Four digits. The PIN is checked against the face you tapped, so two people can have the same four digits without either getting in as the other. The tablet never keeps it.
3. Signed in. “Hello, [name]”, then the buttons: 📍 room, Clock in, Start break, End break, Clock out, ⚙ My settings, Done.
4. Your room. If the tablet stays in one room, that room is used. Otherwise it fills in your usual room or the room you were in last; tap 📍 to change it at any time in the day. Changing room is recorded as a move, not a clock in. In ⚙ My settings you can save your usual room, or choose No usual room · ask me each time.
5. Breaks. If a break runs over an hour, the tablet tells you when you end it: breaks are an hour.
6. The end of the day. From quarter to six a yellow banner on every screen, the screensaver included, says how many minutes are left. Anyone still clocked in is signed out at 6pm by the evening run (7pm at Croydon on the late nights a manager has set).
7. Done locks it. Untouched for a minute and a half, the signed-in screen locks itself anyway.

What to show: the screensaver and the cards (10 min)

• Left on the faces screen for a minute, the tablet goes to its screensaver: a big clock and the date, what should be happening now and what is next from the nursery's daily timetable, and a card at the bottom that changes every 20 seconds. “Tap anywhere to sign in”: the tap that wakes it never presses a face underneath.
• On the faces screen itself, a card changes every 30 seconds, with ‹ Back and Next ›.
• The cards: 🗣️ The JLK Voice, 💡 Observation tips, 🚨 What to do (each step from a JLK policy), 🔍 Ofsted might ask, 🧺 Activity ideas, 💚 Why we're here (from the Staff Handbook's mission statement), and 👀 Look out for today. The first cards of the day are the JLK Voice swap of the day, then what to look out for today.
• No card ever shows a child's details: a locked tablet in reception is read by anyone.

What to show: the tiles (20 min)

Signed in, the tablet shows a Find an answer box and two rows of tiles. You only see the tiles your role can use.

Every page opened from a tile has a green ← Tablet home button at the top right. A full-screen tablet has no back button; that is the way back.

• ✅ Daily checks: the opening, safety and closing checklists. Each line is OK, Issue or N/A, then Submit checks. Anything marked Issue, and any temperature out of range, goes to the nursery's managers and stays under Open issues until a manager marks it fixed. The same issue reported three times goes to the directors. Checks only work on the tablet, on purpose: they are done standing in the building.
• 🪪 Visitors: the member of staff signs the visitor in, because they are the one who checked the ID. Choose the Reason for visit and the type of ID you saw (never its number); No ID — manager told tells the managers. Everyone signed in and not out appears on the fire list, and the closing checklist will not pass clean while anyone is still in.
• A family on a tour: choose Prospective parent — tour. No ID is needed for families. One row for each adult (＋ Add another person), their children under Children with them. You stay with them the whole time and sign them out at the door when they leave. The tablet links to the Tour script from there.
• 😴 Sleep log: ＋ Put a child down to sleep, then the safe sleep questions, which all have to be true before the sleep starts. Each check asks who is doing it (face and PIN), because a sleep check is a safety record and has to say who actually looked. A check has Yes or No / I'm worried, and the position the child is in. The page stays open for the whole nap.
• 🩹 Accident / incident: someone hurt, something that happened, or a near miss, for a child, a member of staff or a visitor. If you saw it, it's yours to record. (More in session 4.)
• 📋 Handover notes: notes for your room or the whole nursery pop up when you sign in, until you press Read; they last until the end of the day (or until tomorrow, if the writer chose that). 📋 Handover on the signed-in screen adds one. Underneath, Today so far fills itself in: accidents, behaviour, sleeps, checks, visitors and who came in. Staff who were off yesterday see what they missed. Never a child's surname or health details in a note.
• 👥 Who is in: staff by room right now, children and visitors in, Refresh, and 🔥 Fire list, which is everyone in the building, printable in one tap. It shows counts; it does not work out ratios. A child with a medical need is flagged on the fire list, never with the detail.

What it won't open, and why (10 min)

The tablet will not open the Staff Hub, the timesheet, Ask a Director, the new-starter check-in, Induction, the Academy, Training, any course, My CPD, the career pathway or certificates. Try one: it goes back to the tablet home with the message “That page isn't available on the nursery tablet — things like the Staff Hub, timesheets and courses are on your own phone. You've been signed out here.”

• Why: they are personal or private (Ask a Director can be anonymous; a timesheet draft is saved on the device it is typed on), or they are long, and every minute on the tablet is a minute not with the children.
• Pages with a child's details (concern forms, the behaviour record, accident reports, support plans and risk assessments for managers) ask Still there? after four minutes untouched, and go back to the locked tablet 30 seconds later unless you tap I'm still here.
• If you leave the tablet mid-task, your sign-in on the tiles' pages ends after 20 minutes anyway.

Offline: the paper fallback

If the tablet cannot reach the internet it says: “No connection. Sign in on paper and tell your manager — the rota and timesheet still stand.” Show the group where the paper is kept at your nursery.

What to show

On the Hub, the section 🛡️ Something happened — record it. On the tablet, the same forms are tiles under The children.

• 🛡️ Safeguarding: cause for concern. Worried about a child? Tell the DSL in person first, then record it here. Anyone can. You do not have to be sure. Anything involving a member of staff goes to the DSL and the directors only.
• 🩹 Report an accident or incident. Someone hurt, something that happened, or a near miss: a child, a member of staff or a visitor. If you saw it, it's yours to record. Your manager reviews it.
• 🧭 Behaviour record. Unkind words, swearing, discriminatory words, hurting another child. Record it from the first time, so a pattern can be seen. Your manager reviews it and adds it to the Incident Log. If a child's words or behaviour were aimed at you, choose A member of staff as who it was aimed at, and tick I'd like my manager to check in with me if you would.
• ⚑ SEND: something noticed. Noticed something about a child's development and want the SENCo to know? Anyone can raise one. Not for safeguarding: that goes to the DSL, in person.
• ❓ Which form do I use? Starts with “Is a child in danger right now? That is not a form.” Then each situation (sexual words or play that worry you, a child hurting another child, swearing, discriminatory words, holding or moving a child to keep someone safe, words aimed at you) with what to do, which form, and the policy it comes from.
• 🧩 Support plans: when and how. The three kinds of plan (SEND support, led by the SENCo; behaviour support, led by the manager; allergy or medical, run by the manager with the parents). What you do when you notice something: write down what you actually see, talk to the key person and room leader, record it, and the SENCo or manager takes it from there. Plans are reviewed at least termly.

What to show

• 📝 Write an observation (Hub → Observations & EYFS, or the tablet). Nothing on this page is saved or sent anywhere: Ovivio is the record. There is no child's name on it on purpose; you choose the child in Ovivio. Write What happened? (what they did or said, not what you think it means), then optionally what it tells us and next steps. 🔎 Suggest statements from what I wrote offers Development Matters statements; pick how secure each one is. Then open Ovivio and copy each part across in the same order. Closing the page clears it.
• 🔎 EYFS moments & observations. Pick an area, an age band and a statement: ordinary moments where it shows (lunch, coats, the water tray), a one-line example of each, and what you might see next.
• 👀 Look out for today on the Hub and on the tablet's cards: one Development Matters statement for babies and toddlers and one for 3 and 4-year-olds, the same at every nursery all day, moving on each weekday.
• 🧺 Activities. 888 ideas by age and EYFS area: what you need, your job while it happens, what tells you it worked. Plan this opens a new plan with the activity, the resources and the statement filled in. The learning intention, key questions and who it is for are left for you, because those are about your children.
• 📋 New activity plan is sent for manager approval. 🗓 Plan my week fills Monday to Friday in one sitting and 💾 Send all for approval sends each as its own plan. 📅 Plan my month sketches a whole month. On the tablet: Today's plans, Activities and Plan my week.

What to show

🛡️ New since the guide was written: the Safeguarding & Child Protection course now covers everything in Annex C of the EYFS: what safeguarding means for under-fives, the factors that can lead to harm, every sign Annex C names (including a colleague's excessive one-to-one attention, and any bruise on a baby who can't yet move about), working in ways that keep children safe, and who does what. Seven modules, about 40 minutes. Everyone does it every year; anyone who did the old version this year should look at modules 1, 3, 6 and 7. Deputy DSLs have a matching update.

• 📋 Induction: eight steps (Welcome & paperwork, Safeguarding & child protection, Key policies, Health, safety & hygiene, EYFS & your role, The setting & team, Shadowing, supervision & required training, Sign-off). Progress saves; the certificate prints at the end (🏅 My certificate to download it again). Until it is finished, the Hub shows Finish your induction first.
• The Safeguarding Acknowledgement (Induction, step 2): initial each line, sign in the box with your finger (⤢ Bigger gives a larger signing area), and your manager countersigns. Or print a blank one and sign it together on paper.

  Within the first week of induction, all staff will receive a copy of this policy. It is the line manager’s responsibility to ensure that the new staff member understands it and is able to follow it.From our Safeguarding Children and Child Protection policy

• 🎓 The Academy: the course library in six academies: Core Compliance, Early Years Excellence, SEND & Inclusion, Parent Experience, Leadership, Business Excellence. This week's 2 focus courses are at the top.
• 🎯 Training: every course grouped by academy, with filters for time (“≤ 15 min tonight”) and status. Some courses end with a practice task: do it in your real day, come back and write a 2 to 3 sentence note, enter the email of the senior member of staff who signs it off (your deputy, nursery manager or a director), and submit. They get a link to verify it. You'll see Submitted for countersign, then Verified in practice or Needs more practice with their note.
• 🎖 My CPD: badges, CPD hours by academy, completed courses, renewals coming up, and certificates. Printable for appraisals or Ofsted.
• 🪜 Career pathway: the nine levels from Apprentice to Director, the certification levels you can earn, and Wrong role showing? if yours is wrong.
• 🌱 New-starter check-in: the 30, 60 and 90-day reflections, for anyone new.

All of these are on your own phone only. The tablet will not open them.

What to show (Hub → 📖 Policies & guidance)

• 📚 Policies Library: all our policies, with search and print.
• 📖 Staff Handbook: terms, conduct and the daily routine, in 38 sections. Print or save as PDF.
• 🗣️ The JLK Voice: how we talk to children. The five habits, the 13 swaps (say this, not that), scripts for the hard moments, the phrasebook, and 🖨 Print the room poster.
• ⚠️ When is a risk assessment needed? What one is, when one is needed (every room at least once a year, new equipment or activities, every outing, risky play, a child with an allergy, a behaviour support plan, a member of staff who is pregnant, lifting, lone working, stress), who writes it and who signs it off. Daily checks on the tablet check that the controls in the risk assessment are actually there. Room leaders and managers also see 📝 Risk assessments, where they write them; a director signs them off.
• 🖨️ Pocket cards: print, laminate, keep in your apron: Safeguarding (the four Rs), first aid, behaviour, key contacts. Four to an A4 sheet.
• 🧰 Daily tools guide: Discord and the timesheet, in full.
• Our core statement on behaviour (non-negotiable): every adult must understand it and be able to explain it. “At JLK, we see behaviour as development. Children communicate through behaviour, and we guide skills step by step through calm modelling and consistent support.” It is at the top of the Positive Behaviour policy, the JLK Voice, the behaviour record and the Staff Hub, and managers ask you to explain it at your induction sign-off.

What to show (Hub → ⏱ Time & pay)

• ⏰ My hours: your shifts this week, from clocking in on the tablet. Clocking in and out is on the nursery tablet only.
• 🕒 My Timesheet: your month, pre-filled from clock-in. Weeks run Monday to Sunday. Change the Type for annual leave, sickness, bank holidays, training or unpaid leave. Your hours count from 8am to 6pm (at Croydon, from 7am or to 7pm on the early mornings and late nights a manager has set); duties that run past 6 aren't authorised.
• Extra hours (a late collection, covering a colleague) go under extra hours with the reason. They stay at 0 until a manager approves them: hand the device to your manager to approve with their PIN.
• Saved on this device as you type; nothing is sent until you press 📤 Submit to office. Submitting locks the sheet. Something wrong? Unlock to correct, say why, re-submit: it goes to the office as an amendment with your reason.
• The deadline: the last working day of each month. Staff are paid on the 5th of the following month. A countdown on the timesheet shows how many working days are left; after the deadline it says OVERDUE.
• If it is late: payroll runs on the 5th and needs every timesheet before then. A late timesheet means your payment could be delayed.
• 🗓 My rota: your shifts and room for this week and the next three, once your manager publishes the week.
• 🤒 Report an absence: first phone the nursery and speak to the manager on duty yourself: by the evening before if you can, by 7am at the latest (early shift: text too, never between 9:30pm and 5:30am). Not a text on its own, not someone else for you. Then record it on the Hub: who you spoke to and when, your first day off, anything to cover. The managers are told, never the reason. While you are off, phone before 3pm each day and press Still off today; phone by 3pm the day before you're back and press I'll be back on…. Back at work: I'm back: self-certify, and a short return-to-work meeting. More than 7 days in a row needs a fit note. The Hub sends a reminder at 1pm if you're off and haven't been in touch.

Groups

Led by a room leader while you run the managers' session next door. Each group opens its role on the roles page:

What to do in each group

1. Read your role on the roles page (10 min).
2. Sort it on a sheet of paper in three columns: every day, every week, every month. Put each Hub or tablet job in a column. (10 min)
3. Share: each person names one thing they weren't sure was theirs before today (10 min).
4. Write down any question for your manager; it goes to them at the wrap-up.

Deputies, nursery managers and directors see 🔐 Open Manager Hub → at the bottom of the Staff Hub. Directors also see 👑 Open Owner Hub →.

What to show: the Manager Hub, section by section (20 min)

• 🛡️ Safeguarding & concerns: the Safeguarding Log (anything the DSL hasn't marked as seen sits at the top), the SEND concerns log (oldest unanswered first), Complaints Resolution, the Raise a concern QR poster, Support plans (SENCo and managers), and the Behaviour log: review staff behaviour records, see patterns per child over 90 days, and add to the Incident Log in one press.
• 🩹 Health & safety records: the Accident & incident log (check the parent signed, record any RIDDOR or Ofsted report), Daily Checks (missed checks show in red; open issues and the visitors' book), Risk assessments (write them, chase actions, review at least annually; directors sign off), Sleep Records (late checks and breathing concerns flagged), the Fire Drill Log.
• 👥 My team: Supervision (who is due or overdue, then the JLK supervision form; every two months; staff read and sign on their own phone) with How to hold a supervision; Safeguarding Acknowledgements (who has signed, who is waiting for you to countersign, who hasn't started; “Not signed” means not signed digitally, so a paper copy on file won't show here); Staff Notices (post to everyone, one nursery, one role or one person, and see how many have read it); the Training Records Dashboard.
• 👶 Children & ratios: Rooms and moves (each room's age band and places, which room every child is in, moves now or on a date; children ready to move up are flagged), the Occupancy planner (bookings against places, morning and afternoon, and the next six months), and the Staff rota (shifts and rooms checked against the children booked, every half hour; publish it and staff see it on My rota). Children's rooms and days are set on the Children Registry.
• 🏢 Tours and families: each tour message in Discord has a 📞 call link for every family: the warm-up call script, and the outcome fills the Family Tour Form by itself. Families joins up everyone who enquired, booked, toured, waited or joined; families who don't join are asked “still looking?” after six months, and their details are deleted if not.
• Careers (Manager Hub, with business access): 🆕 New applicants first; 📞 Call gives the script and the same questions for everyone; 🗓 Book interview puts it in the calendar and emails them (with reminders and a way to rearrange); ➕ Add an applicant for walk-ins and phone calls; archive or delete once decided.
• 📊 Absence and attendance (Manager and Owner Hub): attendance by person and nursery, the policy's triggers and the Bradford factor, what needs doing (fit notes, self-certification, return-to-work meetings, the day-10 call, the day-28 home visit, occupational health), and every notice sent to Discord. Record an absence for someone who phoned you.
• 📝 Planning: the Planning Archive, where you approve pending plans. 📋 Handover log: past notes, who read them and who didn't.
• 📋 Ofsted: Live Operations (now counting QA audits, with the latest one named) and the QA Hub (55 criteria; L1 weekly, L2 monthly, L3 termly; aim for Exceptional). The Compliance Runway is in sections (DBS, training, fire drills, policies).
• DBS Update Service: the Staff Registry has a DBS check column. For staff on the Update Service, check their status online once a year (free, with their consent), then press ✓ No change; a reminder comes to your managers' channel 11 months on. Staff not on it need a new DBS every 3 years.
• Training records: grouped by nursery (fold a nursery away), with 🧾 Raw records on their own page for searching and CSV.
• Timesheets: the Timesheet Dashboard (Owner Hub → Payroll) shows who has submitted this month, chases the rest, amends weeks and sends to the accountant. Extra hours are approved on the member of staff's device with your PIN.

What to show: the tablet for managers (10 min)

• Managers see a Managers group of tiles: Concern logs, Supervision (hold one on the tablet; staff sign on their own phone), Risk assessments: write and review, QA audits (room audits are done walking the rooms), Manager Hub. And the 🔥 Fire drill log tile.
• On the tablet, managers can open the rest of the portal too; personal pages (the Staff Hub, timesheets, courses) stay closed for everyone, directors included.
• Croydon only: 🕖 Early mornings & late nights on the signed-in screen marks the days children are here from 7am or until 7pm: every week on chosen weekdays, or particular days in the next three weeks. Hours, reminders and the end-of-day sign-out follow it.
• Directors and owners switching nursery: signed in on any tablet, a director sees nursery buttons (Croydon, Lewisham, Bromley, with “(here)” on the tablet's own) on Who is in (which also has All sites), Daily checks and Visitors. It only reads the other nursery; anything saved still goes to the tablet's own nursery. The choice lasts until the tablet is signed out.
• Setting up tablets and PINs is in Owner Hub → Tablets & PINs (directors).

1. Back to the morning's list (session 1): tick off what the day answered.
2. The sign-off checklist (below): each person ticks what they can do, and puts a circle round anything they can't yet. You or their manager initials it. Anything circled is followed up in the next fortnight.
3. How to get help: Find an answer first; then your room leader or manager; anything about a child's safety goes to the DSL in person. 💭 Ask a Director on the Hub goes straight to the directors, with an anonymous option. A lost code or PIN: your manager.
4. Hand out the Hub quick card.
5. Clock out on the tablet on the way out, and press Done.