Catgirl They have 3 massive rooms, do reading, crafts, water, , baking, construction and messy play and go outside every day. in the huge garden which is crammed with outdoor play activities. They follow the EYFS curriculum. They have a rabbit and rear chickens from eggs and have a vegetable garden. There is a reading area, asensory area, a cosy area, a play area with toddler gym, toys, treasure baskets etc Plus they go on trips to the park etc. He's only 14 months but when they are in the next "class" they do dance classes, sport, drama, French, Aeorbics, softplay, football and ICT.
I'm not sure where you live or which nurseries you have been looking at.
Your nursery clearly satisfies you and that's the important thing. Haven't an awful lot of time for EYFS - but lets not go there.
I think all nurseries can trot out this list of splendid things they have - and parents are either impressed or not. They take the kids to the park... woo hooo..... a reading area - wow... bloody fantastic...
I like to think of it this way... little kids learn filling yoghurt pots with sand. You don't need fancy equipment - but they do need a lot of attention and care. So labour is the most important input.
So lets start with the staff. How much do you want to pay the person who looks after your child for the majority of her or his waking hours? I suppose it depends partly on the local labour market. I pay my cleaner £7.50 an hour... surely a bit more than that? £8 an hour is the going rate for a babysitter. Let pay our nursery worker £9. I hope that sounds fair - you wouldn't want to exploit another woman, I'm sure. So the local nursery has sessions that last 10 1/2 hours... if she is there all day that's £94.50 - then you need to pay Employer's Nics - that's another tenner, and don't forget she is entitled to holidays, and might get sick or pregnant herself - usually you add on another 15% for that.... So just for this staff member we're looking at about £120 a day.
The local nursery charges £43 a day, including a meal. Every worker can only look after 3 under 2s, and every 3 children bring in £129. So out of your remaining £9 you have to provide a building, pay rates, pay a manager, buy toys and supplies, provide a lunch..... can't be done. The nursery buiding alone must be worth close to a million?
It's a bit like that advert for the lager - y'know the one that is meant to be reassuringly expensive? Except it's not - it's scarily cheap - but they are still turning a profit - and they are doing it by cutting corners on the most important and most expensive aspect - the staff - the people who actually look after your child. If you go to my local nursery, it will be understaffed because it is too expensive to meet the minimum requirement, and the workers will earn the minimum wage, and they will come and go all the time, because it is a shit job.
I don't want looking after my daughter to be someeone else's shit job. Not when it is my dream job.
I understand the English gov is tabling proposals to the regulations where they will make it compulsory for nursery workers to have an O level in Maths and English - and everyone is up in arms. Your figures will be different to mine - but you can make similar calculations - go figure it out, because a sensory area is a cheap trick.