AIBU to want more photos from my child’s nursery

[HelloWorld2577]

To keep it brief. I’ve had multiple children attend this nursery over the past 5 years. My daughter is now there and has been for the past two years.

When my other children attended the nursery they would do daily posts which included a mixture of individual posts with photos of just my child and group posts where you could see what all the class were doing. Either way they were updating the app (tapestry) daily or at the very least 3 out of 5 days a week.

My older child left there last year and since the posts have really deteriorated. I’ve just had a look and since coming back from Christmas (my daughter attends full time) there have only been 2 group posts, one of those posts she wasn’t in it, and one you could see the back of her head.

I know it may sound trivial but I find it very frustrating that they charge £75 a day and I don’t even get to see what my daughters doing at nursery, I also have mum guilt for working full time & some mornings she struggles to go in so would put me at ease to just see what she’s doing. I raised it with management after my older child left and said I wasn’t getting many photos or updates on the app and they simply said they don’t have time to do individual posts now so they are trying to take photos of all children to post on one group post. This itself I find an issue because there are usually between 50 and 80 photos per group post and then I have to go through every photo like a detective searching for the side of my child’s head! It’s frustrating. when I raised it previously they said they were trying to do a couple of group posts a week but as I said above they’ve only done 2 posts over the last 3 weeks.

AIBU? I really want to raise it again but I don’t want to be one of those parents!! I understand they’re busy but if every other nursery do it why can’t they? It just seems lazy?!

How do I bring it up AGAIN?!

I actually would appreciate them not sticking a phone in their faces. By all means at key points with a camera but no I would be objecting on behalf of my child.

Actually they have reduced because more parents don't want their childrens photos on an app.

Be firm - your paying for a service you not recieving (care/updates) & don't let them fob you off with 'find a different place' them to re start it for forward you on somewhere

@Jk8 what care is the child not receiving?

The service she's paying for is childcare it's a nursery not a photography studio. The photos are only important to the OP they don't impact upon the care her child receives in anyway except she probably gets more time with staff because they don't have to take and upload pointless pictures every day.

They are a nice extra not part of the service.

She picked a nursery based on what they offered & up until this year has been recieving if they can no longer offer that they should have given notice last year not waited till a new group started & they were contacted as it now puts them in a position to say if you dont like it find somewhere else which is even more difficult for her

Coming from experience in this setting, it is a pain in the backside having to constantly be thinking about pausing activities to take photos.

as long as your child is happy and there are no concerns just leave the care workers to it.

Nursery staff shouldn’t be wasting time filling In pointless forms saying your child played with sand and bricks today or taking photos when they could be focusing on being involved and keeping the children safe instead.

No one has ever chosen a nursery simply because the staff take pictures and upload them onto an app. It's probably not even mentioned in the contract that was signed its not part of the service it's just a nice extra. As I said earlier it's comparable to being cross that the child had a key worker when they started and the key worker left

I'm sorry, but you have no idea what it's like to work in a nursery.

We ARE rushed off our feet every bloody moment. Never enough hands, enough time, enough staff.

I am looking to leave childcare after 16 years because far too much is expected of us. I never fucking stop. The stress and unreasonable demands put on us is ridiculous, we can't do everything. My mental health has been destroyed by it. All for the privilege of minimum wage.

Post like this make me so angry.

You’re honestly focusing on the wrong thing here. Wouldn’t you prefer the staff to be engaged with the children instead of snapping pics all day, distracting them???

Ofsted are no longer looking for lots of observations on children and so there has been a shift away from sending out lots of photo observations and towards spending more time in the moment.
The ratios for 2 year olds have increased so now you could be responsible for 5 at a time instead of 4 which obviously takes more time, leaving less time to do additional things like tapestry.

I also think you are severely underestimating how long tapestry actually takes.

I spend about an hour a week of my own time (unpaid) on tapestry just to make sure my key children get 10-15 photos a week and an occasional magic moment . I also spend time using tapestry at work, uploading photos, recording nappy changes and food can be very time consuming (and we only record snacks as parents provided lunchboxes for lunch) tapestry can be frustratingly slow to use.

It's a good few years since my daughter was in a creche, but wtf is up with recording nappy changes? That seems all sorts of wrong. And pointless tbh, if someone has an ulterior motive, they'll find a way to get around that.

I spend about an hour a week of my own time (unpaid) on tapestry just to make sure my key children get 10-15 photos a week and an occasional magic moment

I understand why you do this, but I really wish wonderful childcare workers like yourself would stop doing so much in their own time. Most parents would be horrified to know you spent at leat an hour a week unpaid doing such a pointless task.

Personally, I’d rather the staff were concentrating on the children rather than looking for photo opportunities

This

It's something that I always found useful to have recorded (pen and paper in ours rather than an app). Mainly so I knew if something was up with the poo side of things, when they're in nursery 5 days a week you could easily miss constipation.

@Jk8 the OP is paying for childcare which is what she is receiving. The nursery is following EYFS guidelines which is what they should be doing not wasting time taking numerous photos

Oh, sorry, i was thinking in terms of video recording of actual nappy changing! I definitely get (and appreciated) the manual recording of my daughters food/sleep/toileting during the day.

Jesus get over yourself they are not there to take photos

Lol, no, just a note in the book or on the app that they were changed and were wet/dirty/dry. No one needs photographic evidence of the nappy contents.

😳😳😳😳

I’m actually with you.. surely a consistent approach is better. If they used to be able to take a pic to send every day then what’s changed? I’d ask why is the level of childcare different now than last year or the year before. The nursery my daughter goes to now always sends a photo each day, and if she has been upset going in I have a photo of her happily playing by the time I’ve gotten home! They’re really on the ball with it and it comes across like they just genuinely care about putting the parents minds at ease, and it’s really appreciated. No matter what other people on here say… it’s a big deal sending young children to an unfamiliar environment away from you for hours a day. I think if it’s something they made a point to do previously it was obviously important to them to provide that service at one point.. why was that? So they should still do it now. Maybe it means they don’t have enough staff etc? And yeah… you pay a butt load of money…. I think if it puts you at ease then the nursery should see the value in that.

https://help-for-early-years-providers.education.gov.uk/get-help-to-improve-your-practice/reducing-paperwork

YABU for suggesting only city nurseries use Tapestry. Shock horror, even town and village settings have iPads.

Op - do you have any idea how much the staff are being paid at your child’s nursery or what a difficult job it is? No, probably not.

Anyway, as someone who works with children, I can tell you that it isn’t much money and it’s very hard work (rewarding - but harder than most jobs I can think of and is never given the credit it deserves).

I’d also prefer that a setting spent the time connecting with my children than taking photographs. Both would be nice but it isn’t always easy.

£70ish isn’t even that much for a nursery anymore. I live in London and some are £100. It’s not like you’re paying the fortune you think you are.

Remember a key point- the purpose of Tapestry or any documenting is to collect evidence to help to show progress over time and track a child's development. It is an 'aide memoire' for the teacher or practitioner.
It shouldn't be a daily running commentary or photo album for parents.
Advice since 2021 is that minimal is quite acceptable. In fact there is no requirement for any photos if a Nursery chose not to use them. You just need to be able to talk about the child and know them well if you are inspected.
The focus is on freeing adults up to engage with the children and reduce things which take them away from that.

So you want the op to lie about her childs happiness levels to get more photos so shes happy?