Nursery transitioning 17mo into toddler room

[kaytee87]

Bit of background- my 17mo goes to nursery 2, or more recently 3 mornings a week. Due to an injury I have been unable to collect him in 6 weeks. My dh has been dropping him off and mil collecting. I have been in contact with the nursery by email & telephone though.

Mil came home yesterday and mentioned that they had started transitioning ds into toddler room after the holidays. They've not discussed this with either dh or myself at all! Toddler room is only 1-5 ratio (1-3 in baby room). I thought he'd be in baby room until he was 2 (or near enough). Ds is unsettled just now anyway, due to me being injured he has had lots of other people looking after him recently and he's been ill a couple of times himself (ear infection, flu, v&d) which nursery know about as he was off sick.

Am I being unreasonable to think that they should have discussed this with us before deciding he's moving (new key-worker etc) and also is 5-1 ratio not too high for his age?

I have since spoken to them on the phone and said perfectly politely that I don't want him moved at the moment as he has too much going on at home and I also queried the ratio and said I thought it had to be 1-3 for under 2yo.

Is it normal for nurseries to move 17mo into the bigger room without any discussion with parents?

YANBU - they should definitely have discussed this with you. I suppose it's better if they've just been doing a few visits to the toddler room, but even that they should have discussed with you.

However, my ds was moved up to the toddler room at the same age and it was the right time for him to move up. He was bored in the babies room, walking confidently and had lots of language. I'm glad they didn't delay him moving up.

My son was 15 months when he moved up to the toddler room. He preferred it - more going on

Check your understanding of their ratios is correct.
In England for 1yos it is 1:3 and for 2yos it is 1:4
They will have more age appropriate toys, and he won't be tripping over crawling babies.

My DD’s (20 months) nursery is very open plan and if she wakes earlier than the other babies then they put her in with the older children so she does not wake the babies and now a lot of the children are too young to go outside when it is very cold so she plays outside with the bigger children. But is a very small nursery after 4.00 all the children are together so she knows the names of all the staff.

never quite understood why some parents want their child to mix only with children of their own age. seems very unnatural to me.The key worker thing I'm afraid is just what happens in nurseries. if you want proper continuity of care you need a childminder or nanny

Ratios should be on age, not the name of the room.

Also, when you say you don't want him moved from the baby room, do you mean he / she never mixes with the other children at all? they are all kept in seperate rooms ( except when they go outside i guess, or even then is it just one age group at a time?) Genuine question, it just seems really odd to me

At our nursery there is some overlap so the baby room is up to 16 months but the toddler room is 1-2. This gives flexibility in terms of availability, whether the child is walking, whether they're ready in other ways etc. so it's not necesssarily the same time for every child.

The babies do go into the toddler room quite frequently though to mix so they get familiar with it. DD is almost 16 months so I'm expecting to have this conversation shortly!

Mine went up to toddlers with his best friend at about that age - they'd combined the children around christmas due to low numbers and he was much happier in toddlers so never went back. Their ratios were determined by the ages of the children in the room, not the room name anyway

They should be discussing it with you. It frees up a space in the more expensive baby room (higher fee, more staff) for them, so they can take in another baby.

I assume they feel he is confident enough to go up to the toddler room and will cope well.
He may be more settled if he isn't bored by the baby room toys and has more things to do.
It does normally depend on the development of the child - dd2 went up about 14 mths but I can't see wobbly, not many words ds going up to the toddler room for some time even though he is older.

No of course I don't mind him going into play etc but I'm not happy with the 1:5 ratio at 17mo for all day care. Looking online it should be 1:3 however I've emailed the care inspectorate to clarify.
I'm most annoyed that they took it upon themselves to do this with absolutely no discussion with his parents.
There are 3yo's in that room who are much much bigger than him and at a completely different developmental stage from him.
On their brochure is actually says the 'baby room' is 0-2 and toddler 2-3 so I'm not sure why they want to move him early.
In a couple of months when things are more settled at home and he's more steady on his feet I will reconsider.

YANBU - they should definitely have let you know. They probably wouldn't have started the transition if they didn't think he was ready though.

My lb moved up at 18months. At this point he was probably a danger to some of the crawling babies in the baby room and needed to be around some older children with more vocab. With any transition its going to be a little rough initially - but he soon got used to his new room & new key worker.

I think they should have told you (which they have - albeit told your MIL) but I don’t think it is your decision.

Once a child is mobile then they shouldn’t be in the same room as babies that might be on play mats and in bouncing chairs. You say there are three year olds much bigger than him - he’s likely a lot bigger than a 6 month old, plus he’s walking and interacting a lot more with other children?

The youngest child in the baby room is 12 months as far as I'm aware. He's still very wobbly (falls on his bum a lot during the day) and only says a couple of words.

Well they have said they won't move him just now. There's been far too much change for him just now, getting to know a new key worker too is too much for him.

How do you know they will not be maintaining the 1:3 ratio when he is in the toddler room? In my experience they will have additional staff or will be counting the two year olds in the 1:3 ratio.
I can understand you feeling out of the loop but it sounds like the nursery did discuss this with mil.
In my experience this is completely normal as a older toddler who is on their feet and exploring needs the challenge and interaction of older peers.

I specifically asked them re ratio. They said 1:5

I’m surprised your ds is so attached to one specific key worker. I didn’t even know who dds key worker was at nursery. She went up to toddler room as soon as she could walk, age range 1-2. Then moved again at 2.

If he’s in there then the ratio of 1-3 would still have to be met due to his age. If numbers in baby and toddler room is low on a particular session we may bring older babies into toddler room to play but the staff come too to ensure the right ratio. It’s a way of older babies getting to play with older toys, meet toddler room staff and get to know the room while still having familiar staff to hand. That said, it’s not all day and only if the babies are old enough to benefit from the toys in that room.

He's only in a couple of mornings and it's always the same key worker. It's a tiny nursery with 6 babies and 10 toddlers.

The nursery set up is two rooms and on their literature it states baby room 0-2 toddler room 2-3. Not sure why they want to move him early but i assume it's to free up a space.
When I questioned the ratio, she said it depends on the size of the room, not just the ages of the children so it's fine to have 17mo at 1:5 ratio. I was surprised by this so as said I've emailed the care inspectorate to check what they say.

They will be moving him for space reasons, especially as he is part time - they probably want to make space for a more profitable full time baby.

I would not be happy about a 1yo moving into a 2-3yo room. The EYFS clearly states there should be a separate room for under 2s, because their needs are so different from 2, 3, 4 year olds. The relationship with the key person is also so important for babies to be settled.

Ours moved them up once walking. Their rationale was it was safer for the babies, and the toddlers needed different stimulation.
Dd2 didn’t walk independently until she was at school, but they moved her up at 18mos as to keep her in the baby room would have been detrimental to other areas of her development. She needed to be with her peers.
To be honest, I prefer mine move up for the additional stimulation.

My children's nursery was baby room for under 1, older babies 1-2 toddlers 2-3 and preschool 3+
The difference between a 6 week old and 2 year old would be huge! Being with older children is going to encourage your little one to talk more and learn good social skills (hopefully!)

There's no tiny babies at his nursery, youngest is 12 months. It would make more sense for 3 rooms. 0-1/1-2/2-3 but that's not how this place is set up.
Once his balance is better and I'm back on my feet so he has consistency of care at home, I will go back to them to talk about it.

At DS's nursery there is "babies", split into baby room for non-mobile babies, and toddler room for the mobile ones. They move out of toddlers to 'rising threes' generally by 18-20 months, so they're mixing with slightly older toddlers.

From rising 3's they go to the preschool room - DD was in there at 2.7, DS went at 2.9.

At their nursery it all depends on the numbers in each age group - so if there's a particularly large number of babies, they might move some of the toddlers up with the slightly older toddlers. They maintain ratios by moving the staff around if needed.

I loved them moving up a room - they were always ready for a new experience and more 'challenging' activities. I can appreciate why you'd be worried about so much change, but I'm they wouldn't move him if they didn't think he was ready.

One of DS's moves was actually because his friends (all a couple of months older) were moving up and they wanted to keep him with a familiar group. So maybe that's happening with your DS and they're trying to keep some consistency with the people around him?