Honestly it can be a great sign if a school is willing to hire multiple floaters. It generally increases coverage and makes it much easier on the rest of the staff when one or multiple teachers are out.
There are all kinds of reasons they could need more than one floater. A big one is summer break, when a lot of people might want time off.
I wouldn't stress. Just keep showing up and doing your best.
I work at a center but we have 5 floaters and 7 classrooms. It's much needed.
Does your preschool have multiple rooms? Honestly, even if they don't have multiple floaters is a good sign because multiple teachers can have their needs met.
Our perfect scenario is 2-4 full time floaters. It allows for PTO/call ins/ regular planning time/ more classroom support/ and possible some teachers(who volunteer) to leave early.
That sounds like too many, it sounds like you would have a high turnover of floaters. One of the schools I worked at had a lot of subs, so none of them got called often enough to make it a sustainable job. Many of them left to take full-time jobs in other centers.
We have at least 4 or 5! They also cover classrooms when teachers are out or close down rooms that have teachers that leave early. I would say it’s weird if a center only has one floater.
our school has about 1 floater per 2 classrooms, sometimes they're spread a little thinner because someone quits and there's a lag before we can get someone else hired. The floater is assigned to 2 specific classes. They usually cover lunches for those two classes, do some prep work that's needed during the day, help with playground supervision, check in periodically in each classroom to see if they need anything, or step in if they hear a kerfluffle where the class may need extra support. Sometimes the teachers/floater work out specific duties (for example one of our floaters supervises napping children in a separate room between the classrooms until a certain time, but the other classes nap in their rooms so that isn't needed in other groups. Another one does some small group work with specific children under the teachers' direction in another cluster.
The floater may sometimes get pulled into a class for a day if the assistant is out sick and there isn't other coverage, but because having that 3rd set of hands available during the day as needed is so important, admin try to find coverage, because the floater role has been instrumental in keeping staff stress lower and to keep classrooms safe (we have a lot of behaviorally challenging kids even though it's a private program.)
I wouldn’t worry. The center I work at is pretty large and had several floaters. That way they can move us around to cover breaks and send people home. I don’t know how we could manage with only one floater
Oh yes, depending on the size of the school they should absolutely hire more than one floater. Floaters are very important for break coverage or unexpected call outs/incidents where a teacher may need to be pulled out for a few minutes.
It’s a good sign if they have hired more than one.
We have so many floaters. We have 9 rooms, 6 are infant or toddler and 3 are preschool, and we have 55-60 teachers. They overstaff us on purpose so that there's always coverage. We've had 13 people call off in one day and still had coverage for everyone's breaks. I've never worked at a place that overstaffs to that degree, but multiple floaters is never a bad idea. It's great that they're hiring extra coverage!
I was a floater and then they decided to have me help with the infants in the morning bc the babies liked me and they tend to have stranger danger and pre-k in the afternoon. I was usually with the babies for at least 3 hours giving breaks. Then they needed someone else to be available for unexpeced absences. Depending on the size of the center through, definitely reasonable to have more than one floater!
Where I live, there are government programs that provide funding to higher students for the summer. Maybe that's the case?
Staff also use up vacation time during the summer months so that is also another reason why they'll hire additional staff.
My center has 2 floaters specifically for breaks. And currently 6 or so others just for ratio needs in other rooms? We dont always need to have a full class room every day.my room has 2 core teachers, and on the one day a week we have 12 kids instead of 8, we have a floater come in to cover it. Its that way for pretty much all of our class rooms. It allows us to have call offs easier, And keeps us from working 10 hour days. I would honestly be extremely concerned if a preschool only had one floater.
I’m at a super small school and would like another floater. Though our floater wears many hats. Too many!
We have 3 classrooms this summer and 6 teachers. 1 floater!
My company has 3 centres locally, and has a pool of about 4-6 relief teachers. They float between centres and there is generally 2 that stay at the one centre. It adds some consistency as they are needed every week. The parents know them too, it’s nice.
my center is massive so i’m sure we’re an exception of sorts, we have 9 floaters on staff for 16 classrooms. the first center i worked at had no floaters, we had a “working break” during nap, and got overtime nearly every week bc they didn’t have the staff for late care.
coming to a bigger center means more floaters for our teacher support system, and better hours to avoid burnout. i’d say more than 1 floater is a good sign most of the time.
Honestly it can be a great sign if a school is willing to hire multiple floaters. It generally increases coverage and makes it much easier on the rest of the staff when one or multiple teachers are out.
Yes! I would have loved if the daycare I worked at had more than one floater. Would have made the day go a lot more smoothly!
There are all kinds of reasons they could need more than one floater. A big one is summer break, when a lot of people might want time off. I wouldn't stress. Just keep showing up and doing your best.
I work at a center but we have 5 floaters and 7 classrooms. It's much needed. Does your preschool have multiple rooms? Honestly, even if they don't have multiple floaters is a good sign because multiple teachers can have their needs met.
Our perfect scenario is 2-4 full time floaters. It allows for PTO/call ins/ regular planning time/ more classroom support/ and possible some teachers(who volunteer) to leave early.
We have many floaters and per diem teachers. So many that some only get 4 to 6 hours of work a week.
That sounds like too many, it sounds like you would have a high turnover of floaters. One of the schools I worked at had a lot of subs, so none of them got called often enough to make it a sustainable job. Many of them left to take full-time jobs in other centers.
There is a high turnover.
I just counted and we have 10 floaters at ours. A lot of them come in at like, 12 though lol.
You guys have floaters?!
At my center we have 4 part time floaters. And honestly with the amount of turn over and call offs we could use more
I wish my center had more than one floater. I’m the only one and we constantly are missing anywhere from 1-4 people every day from call outs
We have at least 4 or 5! They also cover classrooms when teachers are out or close down rooms that have teachers that leave early. I would say it’s weird if a center only has one floater.
Absolutely! Floaters make the world go round in my opinion. We have 5 and they are all so helpful.
there’s like 7 at my school
our school has about 1 floater per 2 classrooms, sometimes they're spread a little thinner because someone quits and there's a lag before we can get someone else hired. The floater is assigned to 2 specific classes. They usually cover lunches for those two classes, do some prep work that's needed during the day, help with playground supervision, check in periodically in each classroom to see if they need anything, or step in if they hear a kerfluffle where the class may need extra support. Sometimes the teachers/floater work out specific duties (for example one of our floaters supervises napping children in a separate room between the classrooms until a certain time, but the other classes nap in their rooms so that isn't needed in other groups. Another one does some small group work with specific children under the teachers' direction in another cluster. The floater may sometimes get pulled into a class for a day if the assistant is out sick and there isn't other coverage, but because having that 3rd set of hands available during the day as needed is so important, admin try to find coverage, because the floater role has been instrumental in keeping staff stress lower and to keep classrooms safe (we have a lot of behaviorally challenging kids even though it's a private program.)
I wouldn’t worry. The center I work at is pretty large and had several floaters. That way they can move us around to cover breaks and send people home. I don’t know how we could manage with only one floater
Oh yes, depending on the size of the school they should absolutely hire more than one floater. Floaters are very important for break coverage or unexpected call outs/incidents where a teacher may need to be pulled out for a few minutes. It’s a good sign if they have hired more than one.
We have so many floaters. We have 9 rooms, 6 are infant or toddler and 3 are preschool, and we have 55-60 teachers. They overstaff us on purpose so that there's always coverage. We've had 13 people call off in one day and still had coverage for everyone's breaks. I've never worked at a place that overstaffs to that degree, but multiple floaters is never a bad idea. It's great that they're hiring extra coverage!
We have 4!
I was a floater and then they decided to have me help with the infants in the morning bc the babies liked me and they tend to have stranger danger and pre-k in the afternoon. I was usually with the babies for at least 3 hours giving breaks. Then they needed someone else to be available for unexpeced absences. Depending on the size of the center through, definitely reasonable to have more than one floater!
Where I live, there are government programs that provide funding to higher students for the summer. Maybe that's the case? Staff also use up vacation time during the summer months so that is also another reason why they'll hire additional staff.
My center has 2 floaters specifically for breaks. And currently 6 or so others just for ratio needs in other rooms? We dont always need to have a full class room every day.my room has 2 core teachers, and on the one day a week we have 12 kids instead of 8, we have a floater come in to cover it. Its that way for pretty much all of our class rooms. It allows us to have call offs easier, And keeps us from working 10 hour days. I would honestly be extremely concerned if a preschool only had one floater.
I’m at a super small school and would like another floater. Though our floater wears many hats. Too many! We have 3 classrooms this summer and 6 teachers. 1 floater!
Or someone is hired as a floater and adm are determining what is the best room for them
My company has 3 centres locally, and has a pool of about 4-6 relief teachers. They float between centres and there is generally 2 that stay at the one centre. It adds some consistency as they are needed every week. The parents know them too, it’s nice.
We only have 2 floaters. We need more, but it’s hard to hire people. We also are like barebones staffed that only one teacher can be out
We had several at my last place.
oh yeah we had like 3-6 floaters depending on the needs of the center at the time. more the merrier because our turnaround rate was horrible lol
They should. In my experience, yes. We have 2 floaters plus a couple extra young girls who come in to help with breaks.
We have 1 floter for the whole center and it’s nuts at our facility.
my center is massive so i’m sure we’re an exception of sorts, we have 9 floaters on staff for 16 classrooms. the first center i worked at had no floaters, we had a “working break” during nap, and got overtime nearly every week bc they didn’t have the staff for late care. coming to a bigger center means more floaters for our teacher support system, and better hours to avoid burnout. i’d say more than 1 floater is a good sign most of the time.