Nursery World - Spell it out

It may not be just the children in your setting who need to develop writing skills. June O'Sullivan has a word on staff Poorly written documents give a bad impression to all the people who really matter to an early years setting: children's parents and carers, Ofsted inspectors and other childcare officials, and the most professional members of staff who want their professionalism reflected in the quality of the nursery documentation.

Poorly written documents give a bad impression to all the people who really matter to an early years setting: children's parents and carers, Ofsted inspectors and other childcare officials, and the most professional members of staff who want their professionalism reflected in the quality of the nursery documentation.

Managers should not underestimate the impact of bad writing, nor assume that a staff member's good verbal skills will offset the bad impression created by their spelling mistakes, poor grammar and unclear sentence structure.

Correcting a spelling mistake on the parents' noticeboard the minute you spot it might be a quick solution to a single problem. But what about a long-term solution? Management guru Charles Handy warns that if there is one general law of communication, it is that we never communicate as effectively as we think we do. Therefore, you can assume that there are more written communication difficulties elsewhere, which can all be improved.

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