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ORCHESTR

Industries · Nurseries & childcare

Ratios in check.Parents in the loop.Paperwork offthe floor.

We build nursery systems that connect enquiries, tours, enrolment documents, room ratios, daily records, fees and parent updates — so teachers spend the day with children, not clipboards.

Build your nursery system
Rooms · Live
Sample
Children in
64
Staff on floor
19
Rooms needing cover
1
Babies · Olive room
Lead: Teacher H. · from 45 days
In ratio
Children
10/12
Staff
4 of 4
Napping
5 asleep
Toddlers · Fig room
Lead: Teacher S.
Cover 12:30
Children
15/16
Staff
3 of 4
Lunch
9 served
  • Enquiries & tours
  • Enrolment & documents
  • Room ratios
  • Daily records
  • Sign-in & collection
  • Term fees
  • Parent app

01Where nurseries lose time

Children come first. The admin keeps getting in the way.

Most nurseries juggle a waitlist sheet, paper daily diaries, a WhatsApp group per room, an invoicing tool and a cabinet of enrolment files — and the manager holds it all in her head.

01

Tours and waitlists live in a notebook and a phone

What happens

Enquiries come by phone, Instagram, WhatsApp and the website. Tours are booked in a diary, and the waitlist for September is a spreadsheet nobody fully trusts.

What it costs

Families who toured but never heard back, places offered in the wrong order and a September intake that's only clear in August.

With one system

Every enquiry has a child's age, preferred start date and room, a booked tour and an owner — and the waitlist is ordered by your rules, by room and start month.

02

Room ratios are checked by counting heads

What happens

Children move between rooms, staff take breaks and cover others, and the ratio for each room is worked out by the manager walking the floor.

What it costs

Moments when a room is under-staffed without anyone realising, and rotas built on guesses about who's actually in.

With one system

Sign-in and staff check-in feed a live view of children and adults per room against the ratio rules you set, with a flag the moment a room needs cover.

03

Daily diaries are written twice — once on paper, once for parents

What happens

Meals, naps, nappy changes and activities are noted on a sheet in the room, then retyped into messages or a basic app at the end of the day.

What it costs

Teachers lose time on admin during the busiest hours, entries are missed, and parents get updates late or inconsistently.

With one system

Teachers log each entry once on a tablet as it happens. Parents see the approved record in their app, and nothing has to be retyped.

04

Allergies and authorised collectors sit in a paper file

What happens

Medical notes, dietary needs and who may collect each child are in the enrolment folder, with copies taped to a wall or kept by the kitchen.

What it costs

Cover staff who don't know a child's allergy, and collection handled on memory when an unfamiliar adult arrives at the gate.

With one system

Each child's dietary needs, medical notes and authorised collectors are on their record, visible to the right staff in the room and at the door.

05

Term fees, sibling discounts and extras are reconciled by hand

What happens

Invoices are built per family in a spreadsheet, extended hours and clubs are added from notes, and payment status lives in the bank statement.

What it costs

Missed charges, disputes about discounts, and awkward conversations with parents at pick-up about balances.

With one system

Fees come from each child's sessions, plan and discounts, with extras added as they're booked and payment status visible to finance and the parent.

02Nursery platform preview

What your nursery system could look like.

Switch between the screens a nursery manager, room leader and administrator would use every day. Every screen is designed per nursery in discovery.

Rooms · Live
Sample
Children in
64
Of 71 expected
Staff on floor
19
2 on break
Babies · Olive room
Lead: Teacher H. · from 45 days
In ratio
Children
10/12
Staff
4 of 4
Napping
5 asleep
Toddlers · Fig room
Lead: Teacher S.
Cover 12:30
Children
15/16
Staff
3 of 4
Lunch
9 served
Pre-FS · Palm room
Lead: Teacher R.
In ratio
Children
16/18
Staff
3 of 3
Garden
6 outside
Which room needs cover over lunch?
Fig room. Teacher S.'s break starts at 12:30 and 15 toddlers are in, so the room drops below the ratio you set. Assistant M. in Palm room is free after the garden session ends at 12:15 — shall I suggest the swap to the deputy manager?
Sign-in · todayStaff rotaRatio rules

Illustrative interface with sample data — your system is designed around your rooms, sessions and policies.

Illustrative demo · sample data

Seen enough to picture your own nursery on it?

Build your nursery system

03Solutions

The parts of a nursery system — chosen for your nursery.

  • Every family hears back

    Enquiries, tours & waitlist

    Enquiries from every channel arrive with the child's age, start date and sessions wanted. Tours are booked in a shared calendar and the waitlist is ordered by your own rules.

    • Tour booking and reminders
    • Waitlist by room and start month
    • Sibling and staff priority rules
    • Offer and registration-fee links

Not every nursery needs every module. We scope the ones your operation actually uses, and add the rest when you need them.

04AI inside the system

AI that gives teachers back their afternoons.

AI in your nursery system works on its own records — enquiries, daily logs, rotas and invoices. It drafts and summarises so staff can stay with the children.

AI here supports administration and communication only. It never makes safeguarding, medical, developmental or admissions decisions, and it never contacts a parent on its own — every update, incident note and message is reviewed by staff first. Safeguarding concerns always go to your designated lead, not to software.

  1. 01

    Daily summary drafts

    Room leader approves
    Prepare today's updates for Fig room.

    Turns each child's logged meals, naps, activities and notes into a short, warm summary in your nursery's tone. Room leaders read, edit and approve before anything reaches a parent.

  2. 02

    Enquiry and tour follow-ups

    Sent after review
    Which families toured and didn't book?

    Lists them with the room, start date and sessions they asked about, and drafts a follow-up with the places currently available — for the admissions officer to check and send.

  3. 03

    Ratio and cover planning

    Will every room stay in ratio this afternoon?

    Compares expected sign-outs, staff breaks and the rota against your ratio rules and highlights the gaps, with suggested swaps from staff who are free. The manager decides.

  4. 04

    Enrolment file checks

    Admin only
    Which new starters still have missing documents?

    Checks each file against your enrolment checklist and drafts reminders to the families with outstanding items. It flags medical or allergy forms for a manager to review rather than interpreting them.

  5. 05

    Parent message translation

    Staff approve every message
    Send this newsletter to families who prefer Arabic.

    Prepares an Arabic version of the approved newsletter alongside the English one for a staff member to check before sending.

  6. 06

    Reporting in plain language

    How is September looking for the baby room?

    Answers from your waitlist, offers and leavers with the numbers and the families behind them, so planning doesn't wait for a spreadsheet.

05A day with ORCHESTR

A nursery Wednesday, two ways.

  1. 07:15Absences already reportedParents reported absences in the app; each room's expected headcount and staffing are ready before the doors open.
  2. 08:00Sign-in by roomChildren are signed in by room at drop-off and the live ratio view updates as each one arrives.
  3. 10:30Incident recorded on the spotThe teacher records the incident and first aid on the tablet; the manager reviews it and the parent is informed as your policy sets out.
  4. 12:30Cover planned before it's neededBreaks were planned against the headcount. A cover suggestion for Fig room was approved this morning.
  5. 14:00Tours on the shared calendarTours are on the shared calendar with the family's details, and the follow-up is drafted before they've left.
  6. 16:30Updates approved, not retypedRoom leaders approve drafted summaries in minutes; parents see the day before they arrive at the gate.
  7. 18:30Extras billed automaticallyThe late collection is recorded at sign-out by an authorised adult and added to the family's next invoice.

An illustrative day — every system is designed around how your team actually works.

06Integrations

Works with what your nursery already uses.

Integrations depend on what each provider exposes — we confirm every connection in scoping before committing to it. Names are examples of categories we work with, not partnerships.

Messaging
WhatsApp Business APIEmailSMS gatewaysWebsite forms
Social & enquiries
Instagram & Facebook lead forms (where available)Google Business enquiries
Payments
Card payment gatewaysPayment linksBank transfer reconciliation via export
Accounting
Zoho BooksQuickBooksXero
Devices
Room tabletsSign-in kiosksQR or PIN sign-in
Documents & data
Google WorkspaceMicrosoft 365Spreadsheets & exports

07How we build your system

Built around your nursery — not a template.

  1. 01

    Understand your business

    We learn how the business actually runs — people, tools, hand-offs and where time is lost — before proposing anything.
  2. 02

    Map your workflows

    Every workflow is mapped end to end: who does what, when, with which information, and what should happen automatically.
  3. 03

    Design your system

    Screens, records, permissions and integrations are designed around those workflows, and the scope is agreed in writing.
  4. 04

    Build and integrate

    We build in stages and connect the tools you keep, so your team sees working software early and gives feedback as we go.
  5. 05

    Test and launch

    We test with real scenarios, migrate the agreed data, set up roles and access, and onboard the team.
  6. 06

    Support and improve

    After launch we support the system under an agreed arrangement and extend it as the business changes.

08Why it matters

What changes for the nursery.

We don't quote savings we haven't measured. In discovery we baseline how your team works today, so improvements can be tracked against your own numbers.

  • More time on the floor

    Daily records are logged once and parent updates are drafted, so teachers spend their energy with the children.

  • Confidence about ratios

    Headcounts and staffing by room are visible all day, so cover is planned rather than improvised.

  • Parents who feel informed

    Updates, photos, forms and invoices arrive in one place instead of a dozen chat groups.

  • Fuller rooms, planned earlier

    Enquiries, tours and the waitlist are followed up properly, and future places are visible months ahead.

  • Fees that match the sessions

    Plans, discounts and extras are billed from the records, so nothing is missed or disputed.

  • Files that are ready for inspection

    Enrolment documents, consents, incidents and medication records are complete and easy to find.

09Possible use cases

How different nurseries could use it.

Examples of what we could build — not completed client projects.

Single-site nursery

One manager, everything in view

Enquiries, enrolment, daily records and fees in one place for a nursery of four rooms, replacing paper diaries, chat groups and an invoicing spreadsheet.

EnquiriesDaily recordsFees
Nursery group

Several branches, one standard

Shared policies, templates and reporting across branches, with each branch running its own rooms, rota and waitlist and a group view for owners.

Multi-branchRotaDashboard
Nursery with clubs and holiday camps

Extra sessions without extra admin

After-hours clubs, holiday camps and ad-hoc sessions bookable by parents, with ratios checked and extras billed automatically.

Parent appRatiosExtras billing
Workplace or corporate nursery

Places shared with an employer

Places allocated by an employer's rules, with employer-paid fees, employee contributions and occupancy reporting back to the sponsoring company.

Allocation rulesSplit billingReporting

FAQs

Nursery questions, answered.

Education & organisations

01We already use a nursery app for parents. Do we have to replace it?

Not necessarily. If your parent app works well and offers an API or exports, we can build the enquiries, enrolment, ratios and fees around it. If it's the source of double entry, we'll say so in discovery and show what replacing it would involve.

02Can the system enforce our ratio rules?

It applies the ratio rules you define for each room and age group and flags when a room is about to fall outside them. Your manager remains responsible for staffing decisions — the system makes the picture visible, it doesn't replace that judgement.

03How is children's information protected?

Access is role-based and enforced on the server: a room teacher sees their children's daily needs, not family finances; parents see only their own child. Photos are shared only with consent recorded on the child's record. Hosting and retention are agreed with you in scoping.

04Does it help with regulator inspections?

It keeps the records inspections usually look at — enrolment files, attendance, incidents, medication and staff qualifications — complete and easy to export. It doesn't submit anything to KHDA, MOE or any authority directly; your team remains in charge of what's shared.

05Will AI write to parents by itself?

No. AI drafts daily summaries, follow-ups and reminders, and a member of staff approves each one. It never makes safeguarding or medical judgements and doesn't respond to concerns — those go straight to your team.

06Can parents pay online and in instalments?

Yes, through payment links or a card gateway, with term, monthly or instalment plans set per family. Sibling, staff and early-payment discounts are applied by rule, and receipts appear in the parent's account.

07Do teachers need a lot of training?

The room screens are designed for quick taps on a tablet during a busy day — sign-in, meals, naps, nappies and notes in a few seconds each. We test them with your room leaders before launch and adjust what slows them down.

08Can we move our existing records?

Usually, from spreadsheets or your current app's export. We agree what moves — children, families, waitlists, fee balances — clean duplicates and run a test import before going live.

09How is a nursery system priced?

It's quoted after a discovery call, based on the modules, number of rooms and branches, devices and integrations you need. Hosting and support are agreed separately and in writing.

Start here

Let's mapyour nursery.

Tell us how a day runs in your nursery today. We'll come back with how one system could connect your rooms, families and office.

  1. 01We get back to you to arrange a call.
  2. 02A focused conversation about how your nursery runs today.
  3. 03If there's a fit, a written scope and quote — no obligation.
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