What should a Nursery be like?

[BadgerBadger]

(Had second thoughts and moved this from Ed!)

DD had her play session this afternoon as an introduction to the nursery she is to start tomorrow. But, I don't think she will be - and confused!

Children from the ages of 3 were climbing on the 7' climbing frame, unsupervised.

One 'teacher' was supervising (ignoring) the 20 odd children outside on the slide/climbing frame, etc.

The staff didn't know where any one child was at any given time, they (about 60 or so children) were all running throughout 4 different rooms, outside and back in, freely.

I handed in a shard of glass I'd found in the playground, which hadn't been noticed.

At snack time they were sharing food out of their mouths with each other, again, unsupervised.

The gates were unlocked and my sister told me today how she had chatted to a friends son for a good ten minutes, over the waist height fence and was apprehended by no-one, in fact they didn't even notice she was there.

DD is desperate to start tomorrow, but there is no way I could leave her there following what I've seen today.

I know I'm bound to have some issues whichever nursery I take her to, but not only was there no sign of the 'play and learn', structured environment we had been told of, there seem to be real safety risks to question.

DD is only 3, so I am tempted to put this on hold and look at more schools throught the next term, then delay her start until September at the very least (I do feel she'd benefit from socialising more)......

What would you do?

[tiffini]

Dont send her there, thats for sure.

[jangly]

Definitely contact local authority!

[RTKangaMummy]

I would deffo not send her there

Please report it

[bellababe]

I always say to anyone looking at nurseries to first and foremost trust your instinct. If it doesn't feel right ( and this one patently doesn't) then it's not.

[Aimsmum]

Message withdrawn

[singyswife]

This does sound particularly bad, however, the nursery may not alwasy be like this. I know when my daughter started nursery in Spetember the day I went in to visit was pretty manic. They had parents and new children popping in and out and they were also trying to train the staff to deal with an epileptic child. I had seen a copy of the local authority report on this nursery and sent my daughter to the nursery. It turns out it was just the adjustment period which was manic and it is a really good nursery. Contact the nursery tomorrow and expalin to them your concerns, it may be that with all the visits etc supervision was a bit lapse today. Or maybe it is just a bad nursery. Ask for a copy of the local authority report for the nursery and then make your decision.

[BadgerBadger]

Thanks so much for your replies. Like I said, I'm aware that I'm likely to find fault anywhere because I don't think I'll ever be 100% comfortable to leave her!

I am going to ring the nursery in the morning, there are issues which I really want to address with them.

Another thing which I forgot to 'list' earlier is that whenever a member of staff did converse with a child (more telling them off/what to do, really) they got and kept their attention by gripping the children quite hard by the arm. I can't believe I forgot to write it down earlier as it is one of the things I saw today which really concerned me.

[binkie]

Here is some things that are so good about the nursery dd went to (attached to school ds and dd now go to):

• whole-heartedly enthusiastic Ofsted report. If you read them for all your local nurseries, you start to get a feel for when it's not just ticking boxes with standard formulas ("promotes the desired outcomes"). They're all available online I think;
  
  
• some members of staff who've been there up to 15 years (since it started). Members of staff of all ages (and a lovely cheery male nursery nurse) -> happy stable atmosphere among the workers;
  
  
• one big lovely room, laid out in areas of interest (home corner, sandpit, etc. etc.) that you instantly wanted to be in - and of course all children could be seen at all times. Stuffed with things to do but all tidy and definitely clean;
  
  
• outside play area (smallish, but this is central London, so can't really ask more) opening straight out of main room.
  
  Hope this is useful for comparison.

[FairyMum]

Sounds like a terrible nursery. I wouldn't send mine. You have to feel happy with the nursery and its staff. The teacher-child ratio sounds worrying!