to ask WWYD re Nursery ...

[WiddlinDiddlin]

Really my sisters WWYD but she's not net savvy..

God daughter taken to Nursery this morning, handed over, all fine though staff in normal clothing not uniform.

They have her mums number obviously, but know that when shes working she can't answer so they'd need to call her work (which they have the number for) or her emergency contact (my sister).

Mum turns up at nursery at pick up time.. to find it closed, no kids, no staff, nothing. After wandering around the building she eventually found a cleaner, who said all the kids had gone with the staff to a fun day at the local park!

When mum gets there to collect small person, staff just acted like this was perfectly ok.

No permission slips, no mention of it in the morning at drop off, not even a note on the door.

WWYD? The nursery is closing in a month due to lack of funding, so is this worth reporting and who would you report to, because these staff members have obviously decided its ok to do this... and they are almost certainly going to go and work in some other nursery!

Perfectly normal to take Nursery children to the park, post office etc.
They don’t need to mention every trip in advance.

I don't sign a permission slip for each trip. I signed a blanket slip for local visits like parks etc when I enrolled her. It was under the terms type of thing. Any bigger trips I'd be notified and sign a slip. Our nursery take the kids out and about all the time. Pond to feed the ducks, park, country walk etc.

The weirdest thing is that nobody was there. That's completely out of order but everything else seems normal.

Ah ok, I'll get her to check if she's signed anything but they've never taken the kids out locally before.

I think its really odd not to mention it in the morning and not to be back by pick up time, with no note and no one in the building.

Mum was looking round the building for a good 10 minutes and when she got over to the park it was a good 15 minutes since pick up time - they weren't ready to go, they looked like they were settled in for the afternoon.

Like most nurserys if you are a minute late to pick up they are pretty annoyed so its really odd they didn't say anything in the morning about picking up from the park, or have the kids being picked up at that time taken back to the nursery.

It's a pretty big park so if they were having kids picked up from there theyd have had to specify a pick up point.

Op you're overthinking this.

i think this is pretty weird.
i've signed a blanket thing that lets nursery take the children out.

BUT

A they tend to mention trips in the morning
B they would always be back at pick up/leave a note/a member of staff on site so that parents coming back know where their children are.

Is it just lack of funding why they are closing?!

Im not, I don't know this stuff, not being a parent, nor does my sister as she's only parented foster teenagers, and Mum is young and asks us because we are 'proper adults' (hilarious, and yet scary).

I just think in her shoes if I'd turned up to pick up small child from nursery, to find the building empty and no note, no signs of anyone, no messages left on phone... I'd panic a bit, and then I'd be a bit pissed off!

Wind I don't know, it could be there are other issues going on too, but the parents have all been given a months notice and told its due to lack of funding.

I’d be pissed off to arrive and have the nursery closed. YANBU

Not weird to take the kids out, but very weird that no one was at the nursery. Weren't there lots of other parents trying to collect?

If all the kids were out I don't find it strange that there was no one at nursery. The nursery is struggling financially. They will not have the money to just leave random members of staff at the nursery without any kids. Of course all the staff were with the nursery.
I have taken kids out when parents were told in multiple ways about trips, but you still get one parent that claims not to know anything about it.
What is more strange is that they are planning to look after the kids after pick up time. Or does she pick up her child before any other parent does?

She would have signed something in the initial paperwork / contract. Most nurseries do this all the time.

I’ve worked in nurseries for years and I find this extremely odd. Are you in the uk?
As previous poster said It would be normal to sign when the child started to say it’s ok to take groups of children on short walks but this wasn’t a short walk this was a whole nursery outing to a park. For a start much higher staff to child ratios must be adhered to whilst on trips. Was that the case? How did the get the children to the park?
My first thought was did your friend miss a letter or email about this? The staff presumably thought she knew about the trip.. (although It seems obvious to me to mention it anyway..) I think for this sort of trip we would still expect to sign a permission slip.
Going forward as the nursery is closing anyway I don’t know what I’d do really.. I think I would definitely mention my concerns to the manager?

The taking out is normal, it may be that they've covered it with a general term in the contracts and taking children out is actively encouraged.

But it's unusual not to be back for pickup time assuming she arrived during the normal window for collection.

Yanbu. I refused for my daughter to leave nursery as i dont trust her. Shes a runner if she sees something interesting other side of the road. Nursery never takes any children out from what i can see anyway. Id be cross unless you signed blanket slip and know they take them out

I work in a nursery and we do walks out all the time
We don’t ask for permission each time as we have a section on the registration form that gives us permission to take the children out
The only time we do a separate form is if we use public transport
A lot of trips are it planned in advance and just happen spontaneously

Going forward, given that the nursery is closing, I don’t think there is much point in complaining or reporting to ofsted
Maybe your sister could mention next time she’s in that she didn’t know about the trip and had she missed a letter or an email?

I'm amazed at the amount of people saying that this is ok and you're over thinking!! Yes short local trips can be covered with a blanket permission slip (although increasingly settings are under pressure to fill in a higher level of paperwork due to health and safety 🙄)
However, the things that are not ok:
Failing to even mention it at drop off or the day before so you could make sure she was appropriately dressed, wearing suncream etc.
Not making any attempt to get back in time for pick up despite the fact that mum didn't know where they were.
Completely vacating the building and not even leaving a sign in the window to say where they'd gone.

It sounds as if your sister might have not received or missed a letter that pre warned parents about the day and explained the different arrangements. I think that's the most likely explanation.

Has she checked her emails? My nursery tends to email info like this as calling every parent individually is too time consuming

Our nursery do regular park trips and it's great- the kids love it. They also take snack with them and have picnics. They deal with sunscreen, hats etc. I just get told when I pick up that they've been out- it's just covered under generic permission slips.

What is odd, however, is to leave the building empty and not even have a note in the door saying where they have all gone!

Otherwise it sounds great to me!

Our nursery doesn’t tell us in advance of the trips they go on, they are the park, feed the chickens, horses, library, care home etc. All involve a good 15 min walk. They’ve been on a bus to a garden centre, you get the idea. Nursery provide sun cream and have spare sun hats etc to those who don’t have them.

I wouldn’t expect a letter and I wouldn’t expect permission to be asked as when I signed DS I gave blanket permission. I think it’s fabulous that they get out every day and he always has something interesting to tell me when I pick him up

Did she pick up earlier than the time the rest of them get picked up? Ie I know some funding is only until say 3pm whereas nursery actually closes at 6pm etc.

Were there other parents trying to collect their children but not knowing where they were or was your sister the only parent who went to the nursery building? If they really had just gone out all day without notifications then I'd have expected other parents to be in the same situation as your sister.
It sounds like she possibly has not seen the information informing parents about the trip. If she doesn't use the internet then she has possibly been sent an email that she has not read.
Lots of schools and nurseries use social media, texts and email to keep parents informed. If that's the case she may need to use these going forward to make sure she stays informed.

They have blanket permission slips here for all trips on foot, they only write if it goes through the standard session times and take transport (eg they did a day trip and kids could add an extra session if they were pt)

This is very odd. Trips out require higher levels of staffing, so where did the extra staff come from?

Also it's very unusual for an entire nursery to go out altogether. A specific age range might go on a trip, but i've never known an entire nursery to do so.

The fact it appears that your sister was the only person at the nursery trying to collect suggests she and mum missed memos bout the trip. Surely there would have been other clueless parents around if they had been given no notice.

The fact they were not back and all the children were settled and still at the park also might suggest they had extended the time to a later pick up e.g. 4pm instead of 3.30.

I'm really surprised that most people think this is fine. It's totally weird for a whole nursery to troop off to the park and not parents that they need to go there to pick up. Did they take every child's stuff there with them?

When my dc were at nursery pick ups involved handing over of stuff most days, no way would all of that be carted around.

No problem with the trip but their organisation needs to be better, is this in the UK?

It's normal for nurseries to take children on local outings. A permission slip is signed for this at enrollment.

Unusual for mum or carer to not be informed if they weren't going to be back by collection time. I wonder if she was (eg email or newsletter) but didn't read it. A note should have been left on the door.