Would you change nursery

[Moominfan]

Heard some awful comments about nursery from ex staff and parents who have taken their kids out. Dont seem to do alot in the way of activities. Really small. High staff turnover. Few minor incidents ie scruffs and scrapes nothing alarming though. However he seems happy there never clingy, always eats well. Mix of ethnicities. Close to family who help with pick up if I'm running late or he's sick so saves me missing work.

New nursery absolutely huge and has amazing facilities, but my family couldn't get to it. its very close to home rather then work. Costs abit more and we are on a very tight budget. Not a very diverse crowd. I mentioned ethnicities just because we are a very mixed family. Some long standing members of staff who have ongoing training.

It's hard as both seem to have pros and cons, ex employees aren't always the most unbiased perspective, and if you've had no concerns about your DC there I wouldn't be alarmed by hearsay

While i agree with FASH84 I think you need to go with your gut. If you've no concerns about your DC's care or the environment, ignore the gossip. If it's reinforcing a nagging doubt, make the switch.

Turn up at unexpected times, watch through a window before you knock.

I find that sometimes people try to justify their own choices by judging things negativity.

Also people often say they like a broad range of people, but I find often in practise that’s not true, and if the other nursery doesn’t represent your local area I would wonder why.

His dad is no help just said he'll go along with whatever I choose and its really hard to decide. The new nursery its more the facilities that I'm sold on

I ran a nursery for years, honestly it’s the people that are important not the facilities

I think nurseries can be too large. We used a large nursery for DD1 and moved her when she was 2.5. She felt much more valued as an individual at the smaller nursery. The smaller nursery was much more responsive to individual needs and interests. However I don’t think that would necessarily mean that small nurseries are always better than large and a huge amount will depend on the staff.

I also wouldn’t necessarily believe that they will use the facilities in the way they say as it can be difficult to arrange for big groups of children. DD1’s first nursery claimed to use the big field behind the nursery to play in, to go for country walks and to have opportunities to meet the owner’s carefully trained dog. None of that happened. I doubt that she even went into the garden much as she seemed nervous of her next nursery’s garden. Her next nursery didn’t advertise any of that stuff, but they do go for walks, have visitors and have free-flow play into the garden, all year round. They even go to the local playground if a few kids are on holiday so they have a very high staff ratio.

I really like some of the staff at his current nursery and he seems to as well. Theres one young lady hes particularly close to

It's not broken, so don't try and fix it. He's happy and the extra facilities would be wasted if he didn't use them as he wasn't happy.

Yea think we'll leave him as he is, already had disruption from house move. In 6months he'll be going into the 2 year olds room so shall leave it until then

I strongly agree with homemenu that it’s tha people not the facilities when it comes to childcare

If you like the current staff stick with it