What should I be looking for in a nursery?

[LegoLovin]

I'm a FTM and planning to put my 12 month old in nursery part time (not sure what days/hours yet). I feel very nervous about leaving my baby with someone else, especially as we've spent so much time together with lockdown. I want to feel confident and comfortable with the nursery we choose, but I have no idea on what I should be looking for. Does anyone have any advice/tips please?

The things that were important to me when choosing childcare were it having the right 'feel', the carers interacting kindly with the dc, and access to outdoor space.

Staff turn over, if the age groups are seperate, contentness of the other children there

I’d say gut feel (sorry, unhelpful) but for me the next biggest thing is low turnover of staff.

I went off gut feel choosing a nursery that has a nurturing feel to it. I didn't like the ones that felt too institutional. View quite a few.

Find out about pick up and drop off. They should have measures in place to ensure security but you dont want it to be a pain waiting forever to get your child.

Try and be there at collection time and see if you can ask a parent about how they find the nursery. Particularly how the nursery deal with issues. They don't tell you this when you start but some nurseries can be quite difficult with parents.

Ask about food. About routines in the first room your dc will go to and then the one after. Don't worry if it's not your child's routine as they will soon get into it.

You can find out if they do additional classes you have to pay for (I certainly didn't want this, you pay enough and children dont need yoga and ballet at additional cost, some people love it though!)

Find out what parent facing events they do throughout the year. You want to be involved but not in all the time. Ours did Christmas play and sports day plus parents evening (big waste of time).

Nursery is great. Don't worry. Best thing to do is be hard nosed and leave dc without too much fuss. They soon settle and have a great time. If you hang arou Nd for ages looking upset you give dc the idea that it's somehow bad.

Gut feeling, staff turn over and staff that look happy to be there

For me it was gut feeling too.

Also, personal recommendations- my twin nephew and niece went to nursery we've chosen for DD and both loved it (and they're very different kids)

Staff & surroundings - we've chosen a nursery that is very similar to our home environment, rather than a school like environment. Each child has their own worker within the setting, which felt more personal than a "class/teacher" set up

Communication & information - their responses to emails and returning calls

Check if the children have a key worker, and if they have an Special Needs coordinator. Even if your child doesn't have special needs, it's an indication that they are well organised and can deal with children of all abilities/disabilities.

I'd check the food menu as well!

The outdoor area, if they go out a lot/every day.

First impressions are good too before you even see them- I emailed the two in the village and only one really made any effort to respond and find out a bit more about what we were after etc so straight away they were top of the list and they have continued to be great with communication.

When we went to look round all the children seemed very settled and the staff were friendly but focused on their jobs. I don't know how you'd do that now but maybe ask if you can pop into an outdoor play session? Have a look at the menu too, not just for specifics but to see what their ethos is- if the menu read well but was full of things toddlers won't eat then that would be as mush as an alarm bell as one that had fish fingers and waffles on regularly 😂
Staff turnover too, I think one of the nursery review websites has info on that. I was expecting at least one person to have left ours for promotion after the 12+months DD has been there as a lot of them are young and well-qualified so I thought likely to be lookin for room leader roles or similar but the staff hasn't changed at all.

Ours needs a lick of paint, new carpet and such but I can't fault the care and attention they give DD, the resources the children use are well looked after and regularly changed so I take no real notice of the scuffed paintwork.

You will get a gut feel too, I'm sure.

Slightly older children, but for both nursery and then school I viewed a few, both times there was one I walked in and thought immediately “this is it”. They felt calm, comfortable, warm and friendly and instinctively I knew I would be happy to leave my child there. Staff very helpful, manager a very sensible person I felt I could work with if there were problems and the children were all happy and engaged with something. Very happy with those choices.

I should also say that when you are doing warm ups or show arounds be quiet and observant as the staff will relax and show what really goes on.

I work in a nursery BTW.

See how the manager is dressed and if they play with the children too or if they are standoffish.

Be wary of learning journals that are overdone as they may indicate that the manager values paperwork too much and too much paperwork causes stress and makes the staff resent having more key children.

See how many Level 3/5 members of staff are there compared to hoe much apprentices, as apprentices get paid less than £4 an hour.

I would ask about staff turnover and also about staff qualifications. It is far cheaper to employ Young apprentices, Probably with little experience than it is to employ a more experienced member of staff, who probably won’t put up with any messing around from management. there is no way I would put up with the conditions (for either myself or the children) That I tolerated in my first nursery job Over 20 years ago.

How much time do the children spend outside? Are they taken on any outings or just in the garden All the time (is the garden big enough for 16 preschoolers to be charging about in?).

Food, are you happy with what they serve? If you are wanting a hot meal provided and the nursery needs you to send a packed lunch, that’s not ideal.

What is the situation with groups at the nursery? How do they split the age groups? Strictly by age or by ability? I was reading about a nursery that split them by school years, so if they were born September to the following August they were all together, even as toddlers- there’s a massive difference between a 12 month old who isn’t walking and a 23 month old who can confidently run and climb.

Mine were a bit older when they first joined daycare, but similarly I went on gut feel.

Happy looking, engaged kids and staff. A mix of staff, not just lots of young ones (I liked that our preschool had men too - they were definitely favourites of the kids) and staff turnover. Plenty of outside space and I liked that ours had an open door policy - kids could drift in and out as they liked. And not too wanky a menu!

Staff turnover.
How do they cover holidays?
Do children move rooms to maintain ratios. If so do they go up or down.
How do they cover ratios at lunch.
What happens when your child is older and doesn’t need a sleep.
Are you still paying fees if they close.
How do you find out about your child’s day?
What happens at the beginning and end of sessions?

Are the children busy? Do they look engaged.
What is there for them to do

If you don't need a nursery I would personally wait and use a charity preschool when they turn 2 or 2.5 rather than a commercial nursery. Its very hard to find a good nursery, the nature of it is that it is a profit making business and the only real way to make a profit is by employing a lot of 16 year old girls whose secondary school have pushed into childcare as they weren't academic.

If you need a nursery then look around the whole age range - the one I used was great for toddlers but the preschool room was absolute chaos. They were happy to illegally charge us, the paperwork on my son's development etc was not completed properly and staff turnover suddenly went from none to everyone! When you picked up all the kids were watching TV while rows of full potties sat waiting to be emptied - really disgusting. They also pushed him up to the preschool room before he was ready - presumably to make space for another younger child.

The problem is any setting can look good for a short visit, you don't really know until you have paid up and your child has been there a while.