Is this the norm, school nurseries

Children are definitely allowed to be in a school nursery while still in nappies. As pp have said uou cannot refuse on grounds of not being toilet trained.
Also staff will change them.

I'd start potty training. My child was just about potty trained at 3 for when he started nursery, but still having accidents. (Much more frequently at nursery than at home actually, because I would've probably asked him to go to the toilet more.) Nursery cleaned him up and helped him change into spare clothes. I'd rather that than have my child left in a nappy all day.

This.

Is she there a full day or just 3 hours? The school nursery my daughter attended will only change them if they've pooed or if they are very wet, otherwise they wait til they get home.

School nurseries I know change nappies (I have worked in one). If I was her mum, I’d be quite upset.

If you are short staffed, dealing with an injured child, changing a child, showering a child who has vomited or poohed over themselves, Dealing with a medical incident that takes a member of staff out of the room. Changing a nappy may have to wait. If you have several at one time again it delays the change.
It needs to be in your contract that personal care is provided. So if it's a bad day there may be a delay, but the child should get changed.

Special School. We do a phased midday change with nappies provided by parents. Because it needs two staff re older children and we worked out it was taking 3 hours a day and children were losing learning time. We no longer have spares because they have been used up and not replaced by parents. If they have the runs they need to be collected. Each school has to do the best it can but it is not always straightforward on a bad day.

I've worked with a lot of nurseries and pre-schools too and never come across one that refuses to change nappies. I'm sure some people just make stuff up to try and make a point about what age children should be toilet trained. The ones that come out with they only do nappies for significant SEN are total rubbish, most children's Special EDUCATIONAL Needs won't be picked up until they are actually in education.

To attend school nursery, children need to be out of nappies unless ALN.

Sorry this is full of typos that I’m too tired to correct

I’m not sure what it is you want to know. School nursery will have a qualified teacher, ratio will be 1:13, the curriculum will follow EFYS but will be tailored to match the rest of the eg follow the same phonics programme and in my children’s school they start teaching French from nursery. It will be play based but offen a little more formal, teacher called Mrs Teacher rather than by their first name and they will be starting to follow school routines and become used to school building eg big hall, art room and library. They’re part of the school community and will be invited to school events eg summer fayre, STEM week and Easter egg hunt. They’re just another class in the school so the headteacher is in charge, school policies are followed, Ofsted will observing nursery and judging them. They mormally wear school uniform.

A private nursery on site is run seperatly. The head will ask to see staff DBS and safeguarding policies. They will discuss what happens when fire alarm goes off or lockdown alarm. Otherwise the head has no view of what happens, no financial involvement, it’s a seperate organisation in the same way that a Brownies unit hiring the hall after school would be, Ofsted will inspect as seperate organisation and the head isn’t involved in any issues between the nursery and parents.

You do realise that there are children in reception classes who are still in nappies (not special needs, ND or disabled).

Can you elaborate then as that’s the question I was trying to answer.

There is a difference between a private nursery on school grounds who tends not to have qualified teachers and nursery classes who are part of the school.

According to ERIC in January 2025

It is estimated that one in four children in England and Wales are starting school not toilet trained. Now in one area of Wales, parents are being asked to come to school to change nappies. It’s a difficult situation for everyone involved and there are many reasons why this has occurred.

https://eric.org.uk/news/toilet-training-and-school-readiness-in-the-news/

The ones on school grounds tend to benefit from low ground rents, have qualified teachers and use the school facilities. So they might not be funded by the school but in many ways they’re subsidised.

Yeah. The school my eldest attends has a proper preschool nursery (FS1) with a nursery teacher.

They are also not allowed to refuse to change a child. It’s against the equality act.

No nursery is allowed to refuse a child in nappies but given I know a couple of parents whose children have been rejected for still being in nappies I wonder it’s hard to enforce? My friend was rightly angry when her child banned for not being dry yet but she sent a scathing email, reported them to LEA and sent him elsewhere rather than fight for him to be allowed to stay.

@Amba1998 I just chose Liverpool at random but here is an example

www.phoenixprimaryliverpool.co.uk/

Yep there are lots of nurseries which are a class within the school, the vast majority will have a qualified early years teacher.

Aren’t all nurseries just private but affiliated or on school grounds? Is there such thing as a “school nursery” in the UK AKA actually ran by and funded by the school?

School nursery expect children to arrive toilet trained, a lot of them spend the first half term toilet training children who haven’t been.

At my children’s school only one child in each of the classes wore nappies and those children have signifigant additional needs. Those children would have been encouraged to change themsleves with help if needed or done my an adult if they couldn’t manage.

The EYFS is clear that settings must have suitable facilities:

3.71 Providers must ensure:
• There is an adequate number of toilets and hand basins available - there should usually be separate toilet facilities for adults.
• There are suitable hygienic changing facilities for changing any children who are in nappies.