DD (dc1) is almost 3yo and recently started nursery / pre-school.
There have been a few minor problems, but nothing serious and it's all a bit vague, so apologies in advance. Basically, a few things have made me feel a bit wary.
For example;
- we don't see her key worker very much or at all some weeks.
- we weren't getting much info about her day at pick up (though I'm told this is normal for pre-school type nurseries). They have started to do a bit of a handover now after I mentioned it.
- there was a mix up with our consent forms, so they ended up putting some pictures of DD up on fb without our consent. Not a big problem for us, but still not ideal.
- There was a bit of a miscommunication and a staff member told me, (one day at drop off), not to bring in changes of clothes for DD, (who is potty training), as they took up too much space in the cloakroom. The nursery had already said that 5 sets of clothes need to be provided for potty training children, so this is what I had been doing. The staff member was quite belligerent about it tbh, and it made me feel quite uncomfortable. It probably sounds a bit dramatic, but I am a (fairly) articulate adult; if she had that effect on me, it made me wonder how she is around young children who can't really stick up for themselves. I mentioned it to the manager, who said that the staff member had been mistaken about the clothes and apologised for the misunderstanding, so fine, but it left a bad taste.
- This could be unrelated to nursery, but Dd's behaviour has changed a bit recently; lots of tantrums and some aggression.
She has mentioned a few times about staff at the nursery getting cross with her and she parrots their 'telling off' voice to me sometimes. Nothing awful, just an irritable, "oh alRIGHT" when we ask her to do something. It's not something we tend to say and it sounds like something an adult would say, if that makes sense.
DD often doesn't want to go to nursery and I have a hard time getting her there in the mornings, but this could easily just be because she likes hanging out at home.
It's all very vague, so apologies, but basically, I just don't get a very good feel from the place and the staff seem a little bit hit and miss to me, from the limited contact I have with them.
There is another nursery, which we also looked round when we were looking at the current one. I got a better vibe from it and it has a better OFSTED rating (though I know they aren't terribly reliable). There wasn't much in it at the time though, so we went with the current nursery, as it is next to the school which we think DD will end up attending and we thought it would be better for her to be familiar with the area. The deadline to apply for a place at the other nursery is coming up soon and I'm wondering what to do.
Any advice appreciated.