Working in nurseries.

[Ilovegreentomatoes]

I work in a nursery. We are permanently understaffed and can never seem to encourage applicants.I notice this is a common theme among nurseries struggling to recruit staff. So out of interest just wanted to know what would put people of working in a nursery? Yes pay is normally minimum wage could it be that? Or working with children in general? Just interested to hear opinions.

I love my son’s nursery workers. They are just some of the most caring, emotionally intelligent people I’ve ever met. And I think they, and nursery workers everywhere, were incredibly brave during the worst of the pandemic, as well as being critical to the response (childcare is infrastructure after all) but received virtually no recognition for it.

I feel like this too. DD’s nursery has a lot of kids with additional needs, and the staff are just amazing and so responsive. Most of them are ladies over 50. I can’t imagine many young people being attracted to the profession.

My eldest DD did 2 years in college trying to become a Nursery Nurse (plus she had to do 400 hours in various age placements - don’t quote me on that it was a while ago but hands on placement took up a lot of the course).

She gained her NNEB with distinctions and secured a job in a nursery (where she did her Early Years placement). She enjoyed it at first, despite the shifts, poor pay and the crappy attitude from other nursery workers. She loved the children. Until one parent constantly questioned why her dd wasn’t eating much at lunch. DD was the key worker but wasn’t with the children at lunch as she was on lunch break herself. She simply had to go through what each child did during the day… nappy changes, developmental milestones, what they played with, what they had eaten/drunk throughout the day, any concerns etc. The lunch part of the feedback form was written by the lunchtime staff. Anyway, this ended with the parent telling DD that it was disgraceful that she was paying so much for nursery when she now had to go home and feed her dc. It was all DD’s fault, of course 🙄

DD left as she was not supported by the nursery manager, and joined a school as a TA, working 9 til 3pm for the same pay. Again the pay was dire but working conditions were much better and DD had a great working relationship with other school staff. Her class teacher always requested to have DD as her TA for the next term.

Although TA’s are not requested to work outside their set working hours DD was happy to do so. Having a background in music and drama DD was made responsible for staging the annual Christmas concerts (outside the hours she was paid for) and did it willingly. However, all she received in return was parents complaining why x got the lead role and her DD again was a choral member. Together with parents complaining that their DD was not happy they didn’t do a painting, had a chance at creating scenery, wasn’t chosen as a main lead/dancer/ singer/ shepherd/ Angel Gabriel/ Mary/Joseph of the fucking wee donkey! DD felt extremely undervalued, despite being fully supported by school staff members.

When her DH left her DD’s wages as a TA wet simply not enough to pay her mortgage, bills and support her children. She had no choice than to give up the role she trained in and began work in a factory. She earns double the pay now with no responsibility and nobody to answer to.

It’s time that Nursery staff, teaching staff and Teaching Assistants are paid what they are worth IMO. I hope the newspapers pick this thread up 🤞

• trying = training

It is woefully underpaid, and under-respected work. As many other people have said, there's little to no career progression and it is wrongly viewed as unskilled work. It's shameful how childcare is viewed in the country. We have one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world and yet our staff are poorly paid and undervalued. This is much like all industries though that are considered 'women's work' and are caring roles.

The ladies who have looked after my son at nursery are angels and I am extremely grateful for them.

I left because it was rubbish pay and not a great job. A lot was expected of staff (quite rightly) but not a lot of support was given. Everything had to be perfect when parents dropped off/picked up but there often wasn’t enough staff to facilitate this, so it could be very stressful as I often felt the children weren’t getting the type of care I would want for my children. For example, there were often children that I felt needed a bit ‘extra’ as they could get quite upset during the day, but there just wasn’t the staff to give them the proper one to one time to help them settle in.

I work in retail now. I’m part time, so I can work my shifts round my kids. I am paid more than I was in nurseries and there is no stress. I skip out the door at the end of my shift, no thinking of tomorrow’s activities, no worrying about paperwork and children’s eyfs goals and being pressured to take extra shifts. It’s a shame because I loved parts of the job, but overall I don’t think there is good enough pay and benefits. This is my experience of working in more than one nursery plus doing agency work, I have found it’s a running theme in many nurseries.

I left nursery work due to low pay. I earned more than twice as much as a nanny.

Low pay + working with children = my worst nightmare.

I think that to work in say a supermarket,you dont have to pass exams or do NVQ work.There is a lot of study involved for not a great reward really .Often the long hours and mental strain put people off .I loved my time as Nursery Teacher ,but wouldnt go back for above reasons .

I think if you were inclined to be nursery staff (as in, enjoy working with small children, and don't mind the low pay for a period but would want a chance to move up), a TA role would be more attractive. I currently am a TA ( it pays much less than anything I've ever done but I also enjoy it far more than any other job I've had), one of the other TA's has just applied and been accepted on a teacher training programme. There are a few other options as well, more than in a nursery anyway. I wouldn't be able to deal with so many of the things mentioned in this thread about working in a nursery.

I'm a nanny and left nursery work early on, for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, shitty pay, secondly because I much prefer the closer bond with a long-term family, thirdly because I'm much happier in sole charge, and as an introvert get tired of other adults very quickly, fourthly because I couldn't stand all the paperwork and having to think up projects to base all the activities on rather than doing them 'just because', fifthly because I didn't like the 'production line' feeling of 'processing' the children, and lastly and most importantly because of being constantly ill with all the lurgies!!

@TenBobNote

My eldest DD did 2 years in college trying to become a Nursery Nurse (plus she had to do 400 hours in various age placements - don’t quote me on that it was a while ago but hands on placement took up a lot of the course).

She gained her NNEB with distinctions and secured a job in a nursery (where she did her Early Years placement). She enjoyed it at first, despite the shifts, poor pay and the crappy attitude from other nursery workers. She loved the children. Until one parent constantly questioned why her dd wasn’t eating much at lunch. DD was the key worker but wasn’t with the children at lunch as she was on lunch break herself. She simply had to go through what each child did during the day… nappy changes, developmental milestones, what they played with, what they had eaten/drunk throughout the day, any concerns etc. The lunch part of the feedback form was written by the lunchtime staff. Anyway, this ended with the parent telling DD that it was disgraceful that she was paying so much for nursery when she now had to go home and feed her dc. It was all DD’s fault, of course 🙄

DD left as she was not supported by the nursery manager, and joined a school as a TA, working 9 til 3pm for the same pay. Again the pay was dire but working conditions were much better and DD had a great working relationship with other school staff. Her class teacher always requested to have DD as her TA for the next term.

Although TA’s are not requested to work outside their set working hours DD was happy to do so. Having a background in music and drama DD was made responsible for staging the annual Christmas concerts (outside the hours she was paid for) and did it willingly. However, all she received in return was parents complaining why x got the lead role and her DD again was a choral member. Together with parents complaining that their DD was not happy they didn’t do a painting, had a chance at creating scenery, wasn’t chosen as a main lead/dancer/ singer/ shepherd/ Angel Gabriel/ Mary/Joseph of the fucking wee donkey! DD felt extremely undervalued, despite being fully supported by school staff members.

When her DH left her DD’s wages as a TA wet simply not enough to pay her mortgage, bills and support her children. She had no choice than to give up the role she trained in and began work in a factory. She earns double the pay now with no responsibility and nobody to answer to.

It’s time that Nursery staff, teaching staff and Teaching Assistants are paid what they are worth IMO. I hope the newspapers pick this thread up 🤞

I 100% agree. I think the staff at my sons nursery are absolutely fantastic and theres nothing I would love to see more than a pay rise for them.

I worked in them but the pay was too small for my output.
I trained as a primary teacher where my pay and working rights are a lot better.
Also they were full of horrible (adult) bullies.

Out of interest, theres a job going at my sons nursery for a room manager. The pay is £11 - £11.50 per hour. Is that good/normal??

Ex nursery worker. Absolutely loved it for 10 years. Left for better pair and now I have a baby I feel like that part of my life is fulfilled for now. Less importantly, but still true, I liked having an office job were you could make an effort to look nice, pointless are nursery. And looking after other people's kids sometimes made me feel like I was beneath the parents, just their "help", I don't think that's true if course but sometimes I felt like it.

Honestly it's the pay. One of my sil trained to be a nursery nurse, she loved it and was great at it but the pay was just too low for her to make it a long term career. She now a teacher/deputy head and earns about £20,000 more.

I have worked between nursery work & nannying. Currently I earn double nannying for the same hours I worked at in the nursery.
I worked my way up to Deputy Manager and the pay was still a pittance.
The level of responsibility is mind-boggling, for every level of staff member, even the apprentices & lunch covers.
We had to have a detailed knowledge of the EYFS, along with the Ofsted guidelines. 6-weekly baselines for your 20 key children thanks to being so short-staffed. At least a twice weekly observation. Reports twice a year, detailed knowledge of their next steps.
Being able to recall key policies at the drop of a hat. The constant pressure of Instagram-worthy tuff trays. No praise, no bonuses, no sick pay.
There was a thread on here the other day about a nursery turning kids away because staff were isolating & they couldn't maintain ratio. It was a chorus of 'The nursery are taking the piss! They should have back-ups and agency workers available!' And where, pray tell, do those magically appear from? People's attitudes towards nursery workers are astounding at times, I don't think many understand the level of responsibility there is.
I honestly adore working with children but not all of that entails in nursery work.

Oh yes and can be bitchy as PP said. One fab fab fab like family nursery team, several toxic.

I did 2 years working in a nursery many years ago. The money was terrible for what you had to do each day and the hours were really long with different shifts.
Worked in schools also the perk of a school job was the holidays. Money still not great.

I work in a nursery. Long hours, never getting finished on time, crap wages and the endless amount of paper work and jumping through hoops to please higher up bosses vs your local council

You can compare the pay to a supermarket but you have so much more responsibility as a nursery nurse!

Long hours, bitchy staff, few opportunities to progress and low pay.

My circumstances changed after DC2 and I needed to use paid childcare... I ended up leaving my well paid 'professional' role and working in a nursery, but to take home the same amount I had a 40% fee discount. Childcare is so underpaid as staff yet so expensive as a parent it took 40% discount to remain in the same position. That's madness.

It’s not just the pay because TAs earn a v similar amount to those working in a nursery and that is hugely competitive.

@MildredPuppy

Supermarkets tend to be good employers. When i last looked they were paying about £2 more an hour than nursery workers in my town.

They do pay more but don't expect to be treated well. Supermarkets don't see staff as people, more like stock. I used to work in nurseries I'd love to go back but because the pay is so rubbish I can't afford to put my child in nursery while I work there. So pay is a big factor, along with the amount of unpaid paperwork and the fact there is no respect for that job. I'd still go back if I could afford it..

A lot of stress/responsibilities and endless paperwork/training and threat of ofsted should any tiny thing be missed. Very poorly paid, very little progression. Day nurseries are long hours and limited holidays compared to school nurseries etc. I also think the pandemic has had an effect. I certainly don't feel valued and many nurseries I have worked in are all about how much profit can be made and how little they can get away with providing for staff :/

It's the pay, the 10 hour days and the ongoing training you have to do. Always renewing first aid, safeguarding etc, plus staff meetings. Also a lot of the other staff are very young with no experience, fresh out of the qualification and even though I've had 2 children and a lot older than them would try and tell me what to do.
So for me it's the pay, long hours, colleagues

I have worked in nurseries for ten years. I want to leave. The reasons:

1. The low pay. I have worked my way up to deputy manager, but the pay is still crucifyingly low. It's even worse as I am a single parent.
2. You either do long hours or are scrabbling to get any hours.
3. Lots and lots of pointless form filling and box ticking.
4. In order to fit everything in I end up doing lots of unpaid overtime.
5. No extras, suxh as sick pay.
6. Parents can be truly crappy.
7. Other professionals have no respect to my profession. I am highly qualified but treated like I know nothing.
8. I have to go through the same Ofsted regime as a teacher but I get paid less.
9. During Covid I had to work with no PPE. All the professionals sat at home and I had to do their job. Safeguarding checks and visits were done by me. Speech and Language activities were done by me. Health Visitor checks were done by me. EMTET interactions were done by me. I did the activities and interactions for all other professionals as they were not allowed to unteract with families as it was and in some instances is considered unsafe. I have received no thanks. I am still trated as though I know nothing and I am paid far less than them.On two occassions my intervention has literally saved a life and protected a child. Where were the relevant agencies?
10. There is little progression. Plus any progression means an increase in responsibilities with no matching pay.
11. Some nurseries can be really horrible places to work. Their is bullying and bitchiness.