to think a diverse staff force in a Nursery is an asset, not a drop in quality?

[WhataPlank]

I own a small, rural nursery school.
We, like every other nursery in the UK, really struggle with staffing but have recently secured three wonderful Practitioners to join our small team.
All are very experienced, very caring, speak perfect English and are completely qualified; one from Kenya, one from India and one from Romania.

The most important thing for me is having well trained staff who genuinely love and care for the children and ensure their learning and development is on track. On top of that, I think having such a diverse workforce is a massive asset particularly in an area where the children wouldn't necessarily get much exposure to different cultures. We already did regular diversity events (such as a Holi, Ramadan, St Patricks, Divali etc) and the new staff will all host their own Nursery activities to celebrate their cultures.

But I've heard several complaints (two directly to me as the owner, and many more "gossip/rumours") that our nursery has "cheapened" and "been taken over" and is generally being viewed as lower quality due to the staff not all being British. Some people have expressed concerns that their training would not meet the requirements of the EYFS and that the children's education will be of lower quality. It has been implied that the staff's native qualifications are not comparable to British ones.

AIBU to think this is simply pure racism and that staff diversity should be viewed as a massive asset to our community/children?

(In case it needs mentioning, I've gone out of my way to ensure the staff feel welcome and comfortable with their relocation.)

Ramadan ( which you claim as a diversity event) lasts for a month. You are not supposed to eat or drink AT ALL between sunrise and sunset. I’m surprised you think this is suitable for non Muslim children in a nursery setting. Presumably you just had an ‘event’ which incorporated, well , what?

I find this whole concept ( and Holi, St Patrick’s etc) rather patronising tbh.

Personally I would just want warm, caring people to look after my children and never cared at all about formal qualifications. Lots of people can have the right qualifications but not the right qualities and if I had to choose I'd consider a caring personality to be the priority. But some parents are very hung up on the formal aspects, especially when paying high fees. So you do have to be respectful of that because they are your customers. If you are absolutely certain that your staff meet UK requirements and you are being truthful wrt their language skills (which do^ matter in an education or healthcare setting), then that's good enough and you should push back on complaints. Ask parents to put their concerns in writing and you will respond. This focuses people's attention on whether they really want to formalise a gripe rooted in racism or whether they have a legitimate question.^

Of course you are racist. If they are the best qualified then the only thing putting you off would be their race.

OP I'd be glad for my child not to be mixing with racist families so diversity is a huge positive to me. You might just have a shift in who enrolls.

Sure, qualifications, ethos and quality if English matters.

Sadly I don't think the quality and. Accuracy of spoken and written English is perfect in primary school staffed by native English speakers.

Unless I have missed it I don't think that you have mentioned about their accents?

I say this because I was attending a church where I was the only person not of African origin.

The strength of accents varied - a lot - but I have decided I can't really carry on going there as despite me trying my absolute best to concentrate and also hoping that in time I would 'get an ear for it' I was missing a good 30% of what was being said. Other than that I loved it and many of the people there are wonderful and much more intelligent and qualified than me (doctors etc).

Yes. I've worked in care before with a colleague who was Glaswegian. We had to move her to clients who weren't hard of hearing so the accent wasn't an issue. Any strong accent has the possibility of becoming problematic.

It sounds very much like racism if your only objection is their race.

Always amazes me when people come on here and are prepared to show the rest of us their racist views!

I don't think they actually took part in Ramadan 😂. They learned about the event.

Yes, I expect it’s racism/xenophobia - would the same questions be asked if you were employed non qualified British workers? Probably not.

You haven’t mentioned what training you’ve put in place to ensure they understand UK safeguarding procedures, roles and responsibilities, etc. (which I realise you don’t have to, you are not answerable to mumsnet!). Presuming that is in place then yes, I would see them as an asset.

I would serve notice on those parents

Of course OP's done that. It's an ofsted requirement. She's not thick.

Yes it is

Another one saying it's racism pure and simple. My DS went to a bilingual nursery so, by definition, half the teachers weren't English as they were native French speakers (including some from Francophone countries in West Africa). Each class also had a Mandarin-speaking teacher who spoke pretty much exclusively Mandarin to the children. Very few of the English speaking teachers were English but a huge variety of nationalities including different faiths. It was brilliant for my DS for so many reasons.

Rural places are never open to anything other than exactly what they’ve had for the last 100 years. It’s out and out racism and I’d be removing the children of the racists from the nursery before the parents engage in a lot worse behaviour than gossip - assuming you’re a private nursery as you’ve not mentioned the local authority.

If it's not a diverse area, why do you feel the need to do so many celebrations of other faiths?

The phrases "cheapen" and "taken over" make it quite clear its racism, these are quite clearly racist dog whistles

Jesus some of these responses. I've worked with white British women with strong cockney accents and out-dated views in childcare settings (and know a few nannies like this), but no it's the foreigners that get the scrutiny.

I've since moved from schools to nannying full time and the comments running through this thread concerning strong accents and English proficiency wouldn't qualify the majority of white British childminders I've come across 😳

Is it affecting people sending their children to the nursery?
Whilst my children live in a diverse area and have always mixed with people from different cultures
You can't force people to send their children to your nursery however wrong their feelings might be

For exactly that reason? So that children from a very white area learn more about the various faiths and cultures represented in modern Britain

It is.

Because it’s fun to learn.

To teach children that not everyone is the same so they don’t grow up thinking different is wrong, maybe?

So they know about how other people in Britain live. They might not live in the same village all their life. They might watch TV.

Diversity is always good.