To not like the way some of the nursery staff next door speak to the children?

[Dottytablecloth]

My garden backs onto the garden of a nursery.

I know nothing about the nursery and nothing about the staff or children who go there. I also know nothing about what is would be like to work in a nursery and I'm sure it must be hard work with all the tiny people. I'm a teacher but I teach year 4 and they have lots of sense, comparatively speaking!

Anyway, I feel there is a high level of shouting from the staff towards the children; it's always along the lines of "no", "stop that right now", "if you do that one more time you are going inside". There is one boy in particular who is chastised so often we know his name and its repeated over and over.

I know that in a nursery environment it is important that rules are complied with and there is no dangerous horse play and regard to health and safety. I strongly feel that I wouldn't want my children going there and I just don't get a nice feeling from what I observe.

Our school has a no shouting policy so it's a little strange that people are sending their toddlers and preschools to a place where they are shouted at.

Am I being a busybody?

If you think it sounds wrong then it probably is!

Shouting at little pre-schoolers is not great at all.

I don't think you are being a busybody to be wondering about it.

Could you spy keep a weather eye on it and contact the council if it continues?

I said those exact three phrases at tea time yesterday to a child I look after. (I'm a nanny). I did wonder if the neighbours would be raising their eyebrows but said child had been misbehaving most of the day and being in the garden for a picnic was supposed to be a treat. When she continued to misbehave in garden then she had to finish her tea inside. I wasn't shouting though, more talking sternly. Are they shouting more because they're far away from child or shouting in their face?

"no", "stop that right now", "if you do that one more time you are going inside" Seems what you tells children, they actually need to be told no quite often.

Is it actually intimidating shouting, or raised voice to be heard over the din?

It's the same when I see lunchtime supervisors in some schools. Very shouty and negative. TBF - I also see some teachers doing that - but I agree. There are ways of encouraging positive behaviour and communication strategies to encourage positive behaviour and to prevent negative behaviour that are basically don't shout in their face.

Saying that - I was at a school recently for children with EBD. It had a great policy on behaviour - and one class teacher really followed it well. Lots of positive praise etc. I then saw another incident where the teacher's actions caused someone to get upset (and rightly so) - and the teacher then escalated the situation by getting very shouty back. It all escalated when it should have been defusable.

I think you should report it. I am in a similar situation in that my DD aged 7 tells me that one child in particular in her class is always getting told off and sometimes blamed for things she didn't do.

this child is often tearful before school which has given me cause to wonder if it's not just my 7 year old exagerrating. But what to do?

If you wouldnt want them to speak to your child that way I would complain. I saw some women who i assumed were workers out with a group of children at safari park a couple of weeks ago. They were barking at the kids in this way and talking to them like crap. I didnt know where they were from or i would so have complained.

I did complain about nursery workers who were in library with kids and ignoring them, one boy kept taking books over to the man with him and he was telling him to go away.

in fact if you are reading this and were with a group of kids aged about 10-12 at Blair drummond on 21st March and barking at them to "get over here RIGHT NOW" then please adjust your attitude :)

the kids werent even behaving badly.

My garden backs into a preschool. Last summer all I kept hearing was "OLIVER!"

DD goes there now and I know and trust all the staff. I don't hear any more yelling, so I can only assume that this boy was a little bit troublesome

I have worked with vulnerable adults and at one day centre one set of 'carers' spoke to a service user so poorly I did report them to their superiors.
If you feel uncomfortable over a period of time that is your gut feeling telling you something is wrong.

I have contacted ofsted after witnessing an incident involving a group of young children out with what seemed to be inexperienced nursery staff. I knew it was the right thing to do and after finding out later that it wasn't the first complaint that has been made against the nursery, I'm glad I made the decision to phone.

I worked in nurseries for years and never shouted at any of the kids. Ever. I didn't feel the too. I did witness several colleagues shouting at the kids, some as young as two, so i complained.

I don't think there's anything that the OP has said that's 'OFSTED reportable' - just not a place I'd want my dc to be all day. There's a difference.
Might be worth contacting the owner or Manager to have a chat, but if they were a good manager, they'd have challenged it anyhow, so I'm not sure it will change things.

The phrases you've heard are not uncommon when you're working with children.

And sometimes you do have to shout- to be heard- when there are a lot of small ones are in an outside area. The tone would be telling in this situation.

Go with what your gut tells you.