Can you believe a child at niece's nursery was left behind at the park?

[Shaniece]

This is what happened to a 3 yo child at the nursery my niece attends . My sister was telling me this morning about it.

The nursery staff decided to take the children (aged between 2 and 4) one day last week to the park which is a 5 minute walk away from the nursery. They apparantly done a count of the children before they left nursery, but didn't when they left the park. It was only when they returned and one of the Mothers came early to pick up her child said " oh, where is so and so today" that the staff realised they had left him behind .

The child was still in the park when the staff went back playing quite happily, but more worryingly is there is a busy road literally 1 minute walk away .

Anyway, the mother that noticed the child was missing contacted the mother of the child, and she sent letters out to all the parents saying what had happened, and has taken her child out of playgroup (understandably).

HOw can you forget a child?? The park in question is quite small too, and not a particularly busy park.

omg!!!!

i think if my child went to same nursery id be taking him out!

wow, that is scarey. Has the play group been reported to ofsted (assuming they are registered)? What on earth did they say to the parents?

I would definately take my child out of there. Its so not worth it. ANYTHING could have happened. Its making my stomach churn just thinking about it. I hope they have been reported to the local lea or ofsted.

I would be reporting to local authority. That is horrendous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are registered with ofsted. The thing is, my 6 yo neice attended the same nursery and my sister had nothing but praise for the staff and nursery - maybe they have different staff now, I am not too sure!!

OMG! Lucky the mum who came asked after the missing child.

I agree Kay. I suppose they would have noticed eventually, but that could have been too late!

I just realised I have posted this in AIBU - it was meant for CHAT! Apologies.

sad thing is, it's very easy to say you'd take you child out, but if you're a working parent who relies on nursery it's just not as simple as that is it?

I should get your sister to check how many staff accompanied the children.

I can't remember the staff-child ratio's off-hand for going off the premises but when we walk the 'leavers' (so all 4yo) to visit their new primary school, we need one adult per two children.

There should also be a proper register taken out with the group - we have one for summer farm trip, fire drill etc.

as to see thier outings policy with regard to safety standards.

this is very bad practice.

OMG! That is so dangerous! There is a child in Dublin very badly brain-damaged after falling into a pond in a park on a creche outing! It only takes 5 minutes for something to go badly wrong!

what is the point of counting children out, but not back into the nursery????

thank god the child is ok...

i hope that some action has been taken to ensure it never happens again... shocking

I agree Lulu! Can't believe they didn't do a count back to nursery . It's frightening because the road which is less than 1 minutes walk away is soooooo busy .

I took my son out of nursery when he was younger (about 2yrs ago) as when I went to collect him one day they couldn't find him..after much panic he was found in the garden on his own and had been there for at least 45mins by himself.....what was scary was that the fence to the pavement was only waist high on an adult so anyone could have lifted him over the fence and taken him!!...luckily all was fine and he was pootling about quite happily!

We didn't go back and I reported them to ofsted..but still lost almost a terms worth of fees!! GRR not as bad as leaving a child in the park I agree..but scary how often things like this must happen!

Jenna

How long was the child left for at the park?