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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask for your opinion on nursery closure?

6 replies

Habble · 21/01/2013 12:41

Would you be annoyed if the nursery closed early due to snow?

It's located in a rural area where the public transport is absolutely rubbish, and nearly all of the staff have to drive in. The main roads are fine but the side roads are icy. Staff (especially those living 10 - 15 miles away) are worried about getting home safely. There are a couple members of staff who live locally, but not enough to hold the fort with regards to ratios if those who live furthest away go home early. The nursery itself is on the grounds of a school (although with no affiliation to it) which is opened for reduce hours today.

However, the MET office website has the area the nursery is in on a yellow warning, which just means to be more aware of delays. It's only when it escalates to an amber does it mean that there's a significant increase in risk of falls and road collisions.

If your child was at the nursery, would you be annoyed if the nursery shut at 4pm (when it usually shuts at 6pm). This is still later than the school is open for but obviously would require parents to pick up earlier than expected.

And with snow closures in general, how would you like the situation best to be addressed? Would you be put out if the nursery asked if you were planning on bringing in your children the next day so they could assess the staffing and evaluate whether they could open? If the nursery knew that only x amount of children were coming in, so they only needed y amount of staff, it'd be more likely to manage to open, rather than assuming that all the children were coming in and having to shut because of possibly going over ratios.

Have to make some difficult decisions, and thought that asking parents might be a valuable way of hearing perspectives that might have been missed otherwise!

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BuntyCollocks · 21/01/2013 13:56

Absolutely fair. I wouldn't have an issue with it. DS's nursery closed at 2pm on Friday due to not much snow, and it's just outside a large town, and I agree with their decision, so in the circumstances you describe, I don't see how anyone can have an issue.

scaevola · 21/01/2013 14:08

It may be an embuggerance, but I wouldn't be annoyed.

There may however be some snags, if parents cannot make it exactly for your deadline (their own travel difficulties, whether they have to extract themselves from tasks others are depending on, or simply because during the working day you might be separated from your phone (eg in meetings) and not be able to pick up the message straight away). If you include in the message a request for parents who cannot pick up by deadline to ring in, you should be able to plan how you maintain ratios whilst letting staff with the most treacherous journeys to leave early.

It seems sensible to ask about plans for the next couple of days when parents come to pick up.

IWishIWasSheRa · 21/01/2013 15:08

I think it's absolutely fine, my dd's pre- school used to arrange with parents the day before who was coming for ratios and if they were short staffed as i was sahm I used to keep my dd home so that working parents weren't too disrupted by closures. I think it's sensible to make all these decisions based on people's personal circumstances.

Habble · 21/01/2013 15:50

Phew! That's good to know.

We do try to let them know as soon as possible (staff members have children at schools that shut with little notice so I understand how disruptive it can be and how advance warning is everything!), and could cope if there were a few stragglers at the end of the day, just not with all the children as staff who live further would have left by then.

IWish That's very considerate of you, we'd be very happy to have you as one of our parents Grin

scaevola I'm nicking embuggerance to use in my daily parlance - what a wonderful word.

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lovelyladuree · 21/01/2013 17:17

YNBU. Teachers and nursery staff are very very delicate and may expire if they have to walk in snow which is deeper than 1cm. Apparently.

Habble · 21/01/2013 17:22

That's a bit harsh Lovelyladuree. Regardless of weather conditions, I'm not sure many people would be willing to walk 10 miles to work. As I said, we're in a rural area and most nursery staff live a good half an hour drive away (some take just under an hour).

The members of staff that do live within walking distance do walk in, and are more than happy to work longer hours if need be.

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