A preschool runs on small classes of young children, a handful of teachers and helpers, and parents who judge it daily at drop-off. Staff are mostly young women on modest pay, and a good one is hard to replace.
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Share your requirementsA preschool or playgroup looks after children from about two to five years old, in a few classes with a teacher and a helper in each. The owner is often the principal, and the day runs from a morning drop-off to an afternoon pick-up, with parents in conversation at the gate. Staff are mainly young women, many with a short course in early childhood teaching, working for modest pay and sometimes on a franchise's curriculum. Children cry, fall ill and need toileting, so the helper's role matters as much as the teacher's. Hiring peaks before the new session, and an abrupt resignation in July leaves a class with nobody. The wider education hub covers what all schools share.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
If a teacher or helper is absent, the class is short of an adult. Parents notice and the principal must step in herself.
Careers are short, and the principal keeps training a new batch every year.
Aayas change nappies, clean and calm children, yet get little training or thanks, so good ones are few.
A message about a bump or a mood is expected within minutes. Staff need to know what to say and what to leave to the principal.
Tours, forms and fee talks pile onto classroom staff, and the weeks before and after the session start are exhausting.
A franchise's activity plan or an in-house one is rarely written in detail, so a replacement has to improvise.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Retention and Attrition Management; Employee Engagement and Experience. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for education, not in general.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a preschools business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A one-page routine per age group, with ratio, activities and what each adult does.
What this coversHideA one-page routine per age group, with ratio, activities and what each adult does. New and substitute staff can read it in ten minutes.
A short demonstration with children, a talk about handling a crying child and a check of references from earlier employers.
What this coversHideA short demonstration with children, a talk about handling a crying child and a check of references from earlier employers. See the recruitment process.
A short induction on hygiene, calming a child, reporting a fall and speaking to parents, plus a clear title and modest grade.
What this coversHideA short induction on hygiene, calming a child, reporting a fall and speaking to parents, plus a clear title and modest grade.
A small script for common situations and a rule for what goes to the principal.
What this coversHideA small script for common situations and a rule for what goes to the principal. Practise it once a term.
Fix tour days, extra hands and time off for staff before the season starts.
What this coversHideFix tour days, extra hands and time off for staff before the season starts. The attendance and leave process makes this visible.
From helper to teacher assistant to class teacher, with a short course and a change in pay at each step.
What this coversHideFrom helper to teacher assistant to class teacher, with a short course and a change in pay at each step.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A way to find patient, reliable teachers and helpers, with a short demonstration and a pool for sudden gaps.
Practice in speaking to parents and to young children, kindly and clearly.
Cover for absence and leave so that no class runs short of adults.
A look at why teachers and helpers leave and what would keep the good ones.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in education, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Faculty, administrative and support staff leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it within the academic calendar.
7 min readRead article
Sources beyond the neighbouring gate for setters, turners, inspectors and leak test hands, plus a one-hour bench trial built from your own rejected parts.
7 min readRead article
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead article
Eighty per cent responded, the report was thorough, and six months later trust was lower than before. What went wrong between the survey and the silence.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Patience, warmth, a clear voice and enough steadiness to handle a crying child. A short demonstration with children says more than a certificate. Check references from earlier centres.
Give them a proper induction, a respectful title, fair and regular pay, and a step up to assistant teacher with training. Thank them in front of parents. Most leave because they feel invisible.
Keep a short list of trusted substitutes who have visited the centre, and a written class routine they can follow. Use the principal only as the last option.
Teachers should share what they saw and what happened that day, and leave opinions on development to the principal or qualified experts. A short script helps staff stay calm and consistent.
Plan it as a project: dates, roles, extra hands and some time off afterwards. Do not rely on classroom staff alone for tours and fee talks.
We would ask how many staff left last year and why, what a substitute is given to run a class, and how admission season is staffed. A class routine sheet with a helper induction is a natural first job, and scope is written for your approval.
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