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Do/ should nurseries have insurance for broken equipment?

3 replies

tissy · 18/05/2006 15:16

I picked dd(4) up from nursery this afternoon, and was told by one of the nursery nurses that there had been an "incident" involving her. Apparently she and "some other children" had damaged some equipment, and "the whole lot had to be thrown in the bin". The NN who told me this wasn't in the room at the time of the alleged incident, and told me that she had been told to inform me of what had happened. I established that no-one had been hurt, and asked if I was being asked to pay for the damage and was told "no".

DD says that she and 1 other girl, same age, had lifted up a ladder on a climbing frame, so they could get into a hole underneath, and the ladder broke where it was attached to the frame. She and the other girl were sent to the "thinking chair" for whatever the time out period is supposed to be.

As I drove home, I mulled this over- it wasn't clear at all whether the girls were doing something they had been told specifically NOT to do- so why was she put on the "thinking" chair (presumably a PC naughty step!)? She had already been "disciplined" so what was the point of informing me about it in front of dd as if it was some kind of major misdemeanour, and they weren't apparently trying to get me to pay for it (though that may have been the point I suppose).

As far as I'm concerned, equipment does take a bit of battering from a room full of 3, 4 and 5 year olds, and if it was easy enough for two 4 year old girls (neither of whom are thugs) to break, then it must already have been damaged, or at least badly designed or assembled.

I'm of course going to have a word with the nursery manager tomorrow (or at least a member of staff who saw the "incident"), but wondered if anyone else had encountered this sort of situation? If she had clearly defied a request not to do something, and had as a result cost the nursery a lot of money, then I might feel more inclined to offer some sort of compensation, but surely insurance would cover that sort of thing?

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jellyjelly · 18/05/2006 15:29

had an incident at nursery myself today but of a different type. You i guess were told to enforce to the child thatit isnt acceptable and so they learn that things get told to you. I always tell parents if there children misbehave or if i have to time out so they know and they can discuss and back up the lesson to be learnt it sounds very harsh but it is important for you to know what they have done.

They will have nursery insurance but i dont think it is about the cost of the item, if any minded child broke something i would tell the parent not to expect payment but just to inform them that it had happened.

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jothorpe · 19/05/2006 15:12

Insurance would cover major damage to property, if the nursery took that opition on their policy. That's an issue for the nursery, not for you in my opinion.

I would however query a lack of supervision. What if your daughter had been injured? Staff who were on duty (presuming that at least 2 people were) did not from what you wrote appear to intervene sufficiently to prevent the breakage. Also, was the equipment in suitable state of repair? Clearly it broke quite easily... can't imagine they were that rough with the ladder if lifiting it to get in a hole underneath.

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nurseryvoice · 19/05/2006 16:58

all nurseries will have insurance for the toys and contents. however it is rare that they will actually claim for damage (unless its big) because then the premiums will go up.

i think your problem (you hit the nail onthe head) is that she is being punished for basically being a child.
she wasnt deliberatly being destructive, just exploring her environment, quite constructive in fact. you will get this quite a lot in nurseries or anywhere just think of grandparents etc no one will do it the way you do it
i think there is a general lack of understanding about child development and behaviour managment. ask the manager what her philosophy is and the staff should follow her example. and the staff may not have seen it, remember they have a lot of children to look after and cannot look at your child every split second, you know how fast the little darlings are.
anyway let us know how you got on.

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