to be pissed off that DDs nursery stole my ideas?

[harrietflies]

DD attends a local nursery school which uses an online learning journey app to communicate between nursery and home. DD hasn't yet spoken there (she started in September) so, after discussion with her teacher, I started adding regular updates of what we'd been doing at home as a conversation starting point.

Within the first week of doing this, DDs teacher said what a good idea something I'd done was and laughed as she said 'I might have to steal that.' Since then, several things we've done at home (that aren't your standard activities or ones that pop up online) happen to appear in nursery a day or two later. To be honest I didn't mind too much, as I thought it might help DD to be more comfortable if activities were familiar.

However, a fortnight ago nursery got the call from Ofsted and on the day they inspected the nursery they had four activities I'd done that week with DD out - exact copies . Today they announced they received an 'outstanding' grade and the report specifically mentions the 'imagination of the staff' to come up with such 'unique and original ideas to thoroughly engage and inspire the children.' AIBU to feel pissed off and a bit used?

Maybe take it as a huge compliment. Yes Ofsted looks at leadership, record keeping, parental partnership, complaints, development but they obviously were impressed with the ideas the nursery took from you. Yes they should have thanked you but maybe settle with the compliment.

I recon nurseries/schools do this constantly and it's good to see that they reflect/progress.

harriet what do you want? 1 different activities at nursery? 2 continued learning at nursery? Both are valid. If you want 1 then just send a generic did crafts, did role play and don t go into detail if you don t mind 2 just keep going.

When they came and did offstead at our settings they also inspected all the paperwork planning the activities - it's not just a spot inspection and you're done.

in any case - I've heard of all these activities, so they're really not unique or especially creative

There are so many Christmas craft activities, and I think all yours are fairly distinctive activities, and if all done in a space of time just after you posted them, then it is more than coincidence, especially if carried out to the letter of your description. It is always nice for someone to say thank you for sharing your ideas. The teacher did acknowledge that they were good ideas though and that she might borrow them. If you give her a chance, she might do the same thing in person too. Wish them congratulations on their ofsted result and you might get a surprise thank you, I'm sure your feelings are down to feeling unappreciated which is understandable when they borrowed the ideas directly from the learning journal. Hope this doesn't put you off sharing ideas in future or doing lovely activities with your kids because it sounds like you put a lot of thought and effort in and it is benefiting many children!

One of my TAs is obsessively very organised and has pulled together a Pinterest board of Christmas activities for us. ALL those exact activities are on there plus a lot more good ones if you need some more suggestions OP.

op, start posting fake activities! "Today we played 'finger to toe' where we closed our eyes and had to smell the other persons offered body part, guessing if it was a finger or toe"

Sorry OP, but none of those activities are particularly original. They seem very standard Christmas activities for nurseries. In fact we have done a few of the ones you mentioned at our local stay and play.

Out of interest, where did you get the ideas from? Maybe someone reading this is pissed off with you for stealing their ideas.

Harrietflies, my son had a Santa's workshop, making toys, (they made a wooden gift box with balsa) had a wrapping station where they wrote labels for the toys too. They did a scavenger hunt/tinsel trail of very basic orienteering and made their own recipe for reindeer soup with oats, glitter, a tiny bell & other bits & pieces, which they put in a bag & decorated themselves.
He did this in reception............he's 17 now.
Nothing's new!

I assume you were sharing the ideas to benefit your daughter? If so, job done.

Why the upset? Would you rather they didn't do these activities and still have your DD feeling uncomfortable? It sounds like they listened to you and took on board your advice to help your child and tailor their curriculum to fit her needs. That is a good nursery worthy of ofsted.

As for the activities, those sound like something easily found on pinterest. The crafts themselves are simply the tools, it's how the teachers use them to keep the children engaged and learning that makes them fantastic. That's probably what ofsted was noticing, not necessarily the activities themselves.

And did you come up with these ideas yourself op or did you see them on a blog / Pinterest??

YABU.

You shared your ideas. Don't be surprised if people take up your offer. If you don't want ideas copied then don't share them.

They seem pretty standard stuff anyway. DCs di that sort of thing 30 years ago in nursery.

I'm a nursery nurse and I 'steal' ideas all the time! It inspires, interests and engages the children (and us too for that matter!) and helps to keep things fresh and challenging. All settings do this. We also try to link in to children's interests from home.
You'd be surprised how difficult it can be to come up with something new in the small time we have allocated to planning.
Who cares where Ofsted think the ideas come from! They've probably seen it all before. If I were you I'd be proud as punch that my ideas were interesting enough to be used and had a good impact on the children.

DaggerEyes *
*
OP (if you are still reading) it sounds like you don't like the preschool very much, otherwise you would have been delighted to share "your" ideas, and pleased they had an impact on the Ofsted report.

Think about why this has upset you so much. They received acknowledgement - you didn't. So channel that feeling into doing something yourself that with enable you to receive acknowledgement - put together a blog, write a book, organise a craft group.

This is like swallowing poison and expecting the nursery to die. If you were in any way responsible for helping those children learn and smile you should wear that as a badge of pride.

Just bloody well tell me how the jingle bells jingled in the soup and I can leave this thread in peace

I beg you. Someone!

op nurseries don't know when ofstead is coming unlike schools who have a couple of days notice. Maybe their four activities were spur of the moment on the day and they had your ideas in the forefront of their mind.

My dcs school does a santas grotto and elfs workshop every year, the rest isn't anything that's not on pintrest. Whilst it's very lovely you do these things with your dc they aren't that original.

time to build that bridge and get over it

Brilliant. I'm poaching that. Feel free to start a thread about me, duck

And in the interest of staying on topic, my nursery have done all of those activities.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that. I'm not sure what you're looking for OP - a note on the OFSTED report to say it was all down to you?

Your ideas have benefited a whole group of children. That's wonderful. If you're unhappy with the nursery then move your DD.

Think Cinnamon is on to something.

OP I don't understand why you are writing so much daily detail in your DD's learning journal that it is possible for another setting to do an exact re-run of stuff you have done at home. TBH it really smacks of performance parenting.

It would be more useful to them if you wrote, briefly, about what she has LEARNED at home so they can build on that. I doubt they are bothered at all what you put in your Christmas soup.

Out of practice - it's made in a metal mixing bowl so it jingles when stirred. Rest easy now

I'm glad the children have benefited. I just think it is lazy of the nursery to do so few activities usually then so many when Ofsted arrive, it's made me question the quality of the setting. Particularly as dds teacher openly said she's going for a montessori approach where the children select and do things themselves 'meaning barely any planning for me, hooray!'

I'm a TA in reception, those activities are standard Christmas to go's , nothing new or original.

I'm with a PP. who suggested asking yourself why you're so cross and why your reaction is what it is.

Can I just express concerns about the 'elf and safety implications of calling coloured water with bells in it (and very good point up thread about how they jingle when in water) 'soup' viz a viz presenting a possible choking hazard.

Firstly can I just say you really need to calm down. Myself and other parents of children with Sen would kill for schools to recognise what we do works and bring it into school instead of claiming they are experts in everything and to let them be.

Secondly how do you think all the other activities they do are thought of? Not all will be original as there is only so much you can do that's never been done before. Shared or active is the preferred practice in education - eg if something works the planning is shared and others give it a go. You can get ideas from TES, Pinterest etc to name a few.

Your DD attends an outstanding nursery that values parents knowledge. How the fleck can you even think that's worth complaining about

Margot I got you .

Sorry OP im up in the north and it seems your activities have reached these parts already, my 3 yr old did the elf post office thing yesterday, and on monday made the soup thing too. Went right over my head anyway to be honest as I thought it was a made up load of bollocks but to my 3 year old he loved it. To be fair he also made one of those dodgy sock snowmen to bring home with only 1 eye that now sits on my mantlepiece not going with any other carefully chosen from pinterest xmas decoration schemes

Be glad that something you have "thought of all by yourself" is also being used in Nurseries, but dont be expecting any royalty checks anytime soon.