AIBU to expect better from nursery?

[Nurseryworsery]

Name changed for this.

My DC attends nursery 5 days a week and the nursery have a private online platform for recording what they have been doing throughout the week and each entry is broadly linked to early years curriculum.

My DC has had no new entries since before Christmas and when I raised it with nursery staff I was given an explanation of DC now being on a rota system for entries and that there are more children to staff now that DC is older.

Whilst I am satisfied that DC is being looked after and is happy AIBU to expect their platform to be updated on a fortnightly basis at the very least? DC is there 5 days a week every week and the online platform as well as being linked to learning is documenting their wellbeing and milestones whilst I have to work. I wish they didn’t have to be 5 days but I am not able to change it at the moment.

We pay them over £1000 a month and whether DCs online platform is updated seems to be dependent on the member of staff with them.

So AIBU to expect more consistent communication and if your DC has a similar set up how often do you get online updates.

Thanks.

Is this not standard once they get to 3?

I’d prefer the nursery worked were interactive with the children rather than documenting everything in an app all day.

I work in a private nursery and, regardless of ratios, children receive observations and planning in line with their development.

If there’s nothing to observe then we aren’t planning effectively so there’s always something to do! I wouldn’t be happy with this, can you speak to a manager?

Is the online platform her learning journey ? We still do paper LJ's which are fortnightly - written observations and photos linked to the learning goals. It is not a legal requirement but I would be disappointed in this too

Let them focus on actually looking after the children and when they capture something worth sharing then they will.

It’s all well and good having these apps but parents do need to remember it takes staff time and effort to upload it all

More important for the staff to be interacting with the children rather than updating an online platform for the parents!

There's much greater emphasis now on staff interactions promoting children's learning rather than loads of paperwork/written observations/taking endless photos.

Lots of settings now follow "In The Moment" planning where there is no planning in advance and children only have written observations made during a 'focus week' approximately once a term. Maybe your nursery is doing this?

I felt the opposite with my dc’s preschool, they seemed to do nothing but analyse every single move or mark she made and I wondered when they ever actually spent time helping her develop. I actually would have preferred them to give me nothing other than a cumulative report of anecdotal evidence rather than a minutely documented list of every sub-step towards objectives. I’m sure there is a middle ground but equally sure that the staff are working very hard to facilitate her growth in real life and see that as more important.

I purposely chose a nursery that didn’t have an app to pose photos daily. I’d rather they focused elsewhere. The EYFS milestones were documented at the appropriate stages instead.
You are being unreasonable to be so fixated on getting pictures on this app when everything else is fine. Oh and I paid £1400 per month for 5 days, so cost plays no role.

We had paper with DS last year and we could view it when we wanted but would be about 4/5 weeks behind. Staff were very busy and realistically time they would update it would take time away from DS so I wasn’t bothered.

He was the age where he could say what he had done, totally understand if your DC is a baby and can’t but you can always ask on a daily basis what they are doing?

I think given the huge cost of the childcare, length of time they are at nursery and the online access it’s not asking for the moon.
However they clearly think it’s not possible.

We only have termly chances to look at our child’s learning journal but he only goes two days a week and I pay £5/week in a local authority school. I also trust that his teacher (and it is a teacher) is doing a good job and knows him well (he speaks about her as if she is his best auntie in the world).

Early years provision is so variable and sometimes I think private nurseries are obscene in what they charge and the quality of staffing... but that’s another issue.

Mine do it every day

Our nursery is v small and feels like a family. They don't have a fancy app like a lot of the bigger ones but once a term we go in to chat to her key worker and review her learning journal.

For me I'm not really interested in the journal. She's happy and being well looked after, I'd rather they spent time with the kids than doing paperwork.
But it depends what matters to you. If you're more focused on the learning objectives etc then definitely raise it with them

However they clearly think it’s not possible.
I'm sure it's possible, but not a great use of staff time.
It's customer service for parents but adds nothing to the child's experience.

@Nodancingshoes it is their learning journey yes.

@Thehop I spoke to the manager. It was the manager who gave me the information about child ratios.

I totally understand the argument of the child being the priority and like I said in my OP I know DC is well looked after my issue is that because I have to work and the learning journey isn’t being updated I only have vague ideas of what they are up to in the days. Conversations at pick ups are brief and tend to focus more on nappies, sleep and food. I understand this too as I have to pick DC up during busy times.

YANBU. When mine were in nursery, online updates weren’t a thing. The contact book was probably a lot more work, but they managed that at least twice a week and often daily.

I think if you're otherwise satisfied, it's not a big deal?

Our nursery does masses of communication - daily diary every day; a special report every few weeks, etc ... but in all honesty, the most useful thing is the chat we have informally at drop off and pick up, and honestly, what can they say anyway? 'Yes, little Duck made marks on paper today. She is somewhere along the spectrum between awful and Picasso, but we've no way of knowing yet.' 'No, little Duck did not wee her pants today. We are delighted and it surely shows an orange (emerging) skill appropriate to the 30-50 month age band.'

I think if you have a specific concern (or if they do), it's really important they keep an eye. But otherwise, while it's hugely important for someone with a child to know that child well enough to respond sensitively to their development, I think it's often very hard to record anything terribly concrete.

I absolutely love DD's nursery, incidentally, and I think they're fantastic. But I would happily do without so much paperwork from them!

Cross post with you saying it's the Learning Journey.

Really, I have never seen a more pointless exercise.

What can it possibly tell you that your child is at a level appropriate to 30-50 months (or whatever it is). There's a huge difference between a child who's 2 and one who's gone 4, even before you get to developmental range.

I've never had the faintest idea what 'British values' (apparently an important component) might mean, aside from being jingoistic bullshit.

I would much, much rather see a nursery worker come and tell me DD managed to climb the climbing wall on her own for the first time and was delighted, or that she pointed to a word she recognised, or that she has been playing with so-and-so and they're having great fun, than have a formal tickbox report that will only tell me that all of these things are developmentally appropriate and won't say anything much about whether they're big victories for DD or not.

OP I’ve had similar frustrations with my son’s nursery. They use Tapestry and some weeks I get nothing and on another day I might get 3 entries. I love it when one pings through as generally it’s clear he’s having a whale of a time. However, I haven’t pressed it much with nursery as I have no doubts about the level of care he is receiving and I know he is thriving and receives lots of interaction with the staff. I just try to take it as a nice bonus if I get one.

I am stunned by this - written daily reports on what a preschooler did at nursery?

Surely any big deal (accident, illness, seeming out of sorts, etc) would get mentioned at pickup, but outside that, what sort of thing usually gets included?

Genuine question - what info would it be usual for this to include?

Mine does short daily reports - there are tickboxes for how much she ate at the mealtimes, how much she slept, if she had a bottle (not relevant for her but for the babies), when her nappy was changed and whether it was dry or wet or soiled, and if she tried to go on the toilet.

Then there will be a sentence or two summing things up.

It's quite variable - DD's old keyworker was amazing and would always notice and communicate things that were really thoughtful (eg., when we were worried about DD's speech she'd tend to tell us about that; she'd mention really nice things that were very personal). Other keyworkers tend to be a bit more general - which is fine! - so it'll be something like 'Little Duck had a lovely day playing with the bikes, at the craft table, and joined in with some of the singing at song time.'

They tick off activities on a board through the day, so they keep track of what everyone's done.

I do think it is an awful lot of work and I wouldn't personally mind if they didn't feel able to do it, but I understand it's part of showing the government they're doing well (which I think is a bit sad). And I also understand it might be very important for certain children.

(Incidentally, we chose this nursery specifically because they are very honest about thinking a lot of this is government-imposed daftness to be taken with a pinch of salt. They do it well, but they've no issue telling you it is a tickbox exercise a lot of the time.)

Ofsted really don't want lots of written guff. They don't even look at things like Learning Journals anymore, it's not a requirement.
It's done for parents.

YANBU. My 3yr old’s was updated every couple of days, even if it was just her singing, painting or playing. When she turned 4 the updates increased to include group activities like their version of school subjects such as PE, tech and any organised activities as well as the playing.

I work in a nursery that uses online communications. Honestly, it can be a pain. We take videos and photographs of a child taking part in an activity, then have to write them up, explaining what's happening in the video/ photo. Then evaluate it, assess it according the the EYFS, think of a 'next step'. It takes time away from actually caring for and interacting with the children. Especially when the WiFi is slow, the tablet didn't charge fully, someone else needs to use it.... I do think there needs to be record keeping but it doesn't need to be as detailed or as time consuming as it is.

@FineWordsForAPorcupine I love my DD’s. It shows you who she played with, what they got up to during the day, sometimes videos of them playing ‘PE’ like balancing a bean bag on her head or her painting words or numbers. I like the group ones too, like them all singing nursery rhymes or the teachers reading them a story. My DD’s is updated every couple of days. It is linked loosely to early years (the teachers select a tick box option) but I don’t focus on that, I just love seeing what she gets up to!