To complain about this nursery?

[hiddenhome]

Every morning when I'm taking ds2 to school, we pass a nursery and we can see right into their outdoor play area. They always have several of those plastic bakery crates scattered around outside. The children play on them There's also some used tyres.

I don't consider it safe for children of that age to be playing with stuff like that. The bakery crates are made of very hard plastic which could injure if they were to break. They're not intended to be used as play equipment.

Are you serious?

YABVU. Do you think you know better than the nursery, because I can promise you, you don't. Nurseries actually get praise from OFSTED for having 'real' things children can use.

I think they are great things to play with (am a cm so research quite a lot on play types). They will risk assess and obviously take away any broken Ones.

Crate and tyres - standard issue kit these days I think.

I imagine they're trying to recreate a junk playground, not just chucking random old crap into their yard . Out of interest, why do you not think tyres are safe?

Heven help you when you see what school children play with then. Sticks and leaves torn off weeds... the pfbs might "eat something" or "poke someone".

FWIW Year R at DS's school ( no nursury class) have a few old tryres and some milk crates and some small logs. Along with other toys but the expensive stuff is put away over night, teh tryes and crates stay out. Its great watching the kids work out how to build a tower or roll a tyre down the play ground. The big elements make them work together to achieve their aim.

WTAF read the EYFS before you jump in... clueless

(wonders off shaking head)

Lots of nurseries use old tyres for kids to play in as they are quite safe. I haven't heard of them using crates before but this article in the daily fail (which I would not usually read but hey ho!) talks of kids playing with milk crates with no problem: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029135/Dairy-Crest-order-school-return-dangerous-plastic-milk-crates-used-toys.html

Nurseries have to do regular risk assessments and are subject to inspection so I'm sure they would have thought of any risks and decided what the children can gain from using this equipment outweighs any risk.

Is the OP not joking then?
In that case yabvu and a busy body.
Why do you know better?

Children's toys are made of plastic, some cheaper than others. They can break and cause injury. So I don't really understand how the crates could be any more dangerous than regular toys. Plus the crates will be heavier, than say a car, so less likely to be picked up and thrown at someone, or used to hit someone with.

Car tires, used to find them all the time attached to rope on a tree for kids to swing on.

You want to complain about a nursery (you don't use) having a supply of real life items for the children to use for imaginative play

Get a grip.

A child died this week at a nursery in my city. It appears a freak accident which happened whilst she was playing on dedicated play equipment. Things that look safe can be dangerous and things that look 'unusual' can be brilliant fun.

Kids love the crates!

I don't think she is joking sadly. At the nursery I used to work at a parent complained when we got out tyres. The manager gave her a 20 minute lecture on what children could learn from playing with tyres. She could have gone on a lot longer, but I think the parent got the message!

No don't complain.

Go in and tell them everything they are doing wrong.

They'll be really pleased because you are obviously a proper expert and everything

WHY WON'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??

BTW op, I spent £20 yesterday on a mini Henry Hoover for DS. He has spent a very happy afternoon playing with the box the ungrateful bugger. Kids like stuff like plastic crates. They're weird.

outraged
Can you give me examples of what the headteacher said about the tyre.

orthernlurkerisbackatwork Wed 19-Sep-12 19:26:39
You want to complain about a nursery (you don't use) having a supply of real life items for the children to use for imaginative play

Get a grip.

A child died this week at a nursery in my city. It appears a freak accident which happened whilst she was playing on dedicated play equipment. Things that look safe can be dangerous and things that look 'unusual' can be brilliant fun.

agree with Northern...

I'm not sure iknowwho, but if I had to answer off the top of my head I'd say that tyres provide child led learning at its best, children will just see that they'd are available and turn them into a car, a boat, a thing to help with den building, a thing they can sit in two differnt ways, just loads of stuff. Because they are so big and there aren't usually many of them, they lend themselves well to encourage children to play with each other and work together. (C&L and PSED) Even just deciding they want to take it from one side of the playground to the other will involve thinking about how to move it, like by turning it on its side and rolling, which will also work for PD obs. You can bring Maths into it by thinking about it being heavy, you can think about what they smell like in the sun, you can see ice form in them when they have been left out in the winter. And all that's before you mention that they came from lorrys of tractors that are just so fascinating and talking about how they can be recycled. Then when they get old and too worn to be safe (if they ever do) then they can be used to plant seeds in.

I'm sure google could come up with a far better answe than me!

All nurseries should have crates and old tyres. The best nurseries also have old shopping trollies, burnt out cars, and empty bottles of cheap cider everywhere.

Cut the op so.e slack, she's never come across as an overreactor before :) Tbh I wouls have had no idea these things were so common in nurseries

Yes indeed, there's no reason why she should know. And I'd rather people did think about reporting bad practice in nurseries, than just assume that whatever they see is fine cos the nurseries are the experts.

DSs nursery has tyres and crates, is morning they were set up as a bus, with loads of dolls/animals and on it, it looked fabulous, I was really impressed (easily impressed me

that's the point she is not an expert so why does she assume its dangerous.

To be fair, you woudo expect a parent to have some idea about the EYFS by the time they are taking a child to school. It's the jump to 'Shall I complain?' that bugged me. It should have been more 'Oh! Tyres in a nursery, how bizzare! Maybe I should think about why a nursery might have tyres? I could even spend 30 seconds on google and find my answer'.