New to working in a nursery and witnessed horrible treatment

[Emrald1]

Today, my colleague was in a bad mood and just wanted to do tasks like clearing drawers and not interact with the children. She was frustrated with a DC crying and said 'right, this is what we're going to do' and she forcefully grabbed her by the hand and marched her over, plonked her hard down on the floor and then chucked her doll that she had brought in from home down on the ground next to her really hard. A bit later on, she aggressively marched over to the same DC with a angry look on her face and forcefully removed her dummy from her mouth. Whilst having dinner, the same DC was trying to take food from another's plate and she again grabbed her hand away in not a nice way and shouted NO. I don't do nappies as I am lunch cover so I let her know that this DC had soiled their nappy, as she was on nappies and there was no other staff present. She gave a look of disgust to the DC and didn't say anything. I made a note of these things. I was looking for advice as I know I need to report this but this member of staff has been there a long time whereas I haven't and I have a feeling I won't be believed as I think she is seen as a very competent member of staff but this was witnessed by just me. How can I approach this please

Op I don't trust organisations to investigate themselves, they don't want to proclaim they have an awful member of staff and the risk is they may push you out.
Do they have a whistle blowing policy? Are they large?
I'd be tempted to anonymously tell the parent gently (it will be a shock), ofsted and the local authority along with the nursery highest person.

Children are extremely hard work.
Us parents struggle with them and we are their biggest fans. I'm not sure why anyone thinks some badly paid underling is going to be amazing with our children and loads of others for extremely long days?

google your town name and council safe guarding board.

My Neighbour actually said this recently. She used to work in a nursery herself and said she wouldn't put her one year old in nursery until she can at least talk and be able to tell her if anything was wrong

I have recently started working in a nursery and was in a preschool before.
I have noticed a few things with one of the senior members of staff, picking an 18mth old up from the floor by her hand under the child under arm (bicep) with one hand in a scoop and the other hand then goes to under arm of other armpit.
Making 18mth old children sit on the floor in the garden because they hurt someone.
And calling an 18month old a naughty girl to their face.
I dont know what to do with this information and I am not sure what my manager would say as it is very clicky

I’ve been in this situation, it was my first nursery job I was very young, an older nursery worker punished a child for wetting themselves by making them stay in there wet clothes. It absolutely broke my heart. I went over and changed and comforted her. It was over 10 years ago but I reported it to management and they made excuses. Went to OFSTED but don’t know the outcome as I left. Report it and see what they say, if there dismissive go higher up and report elsewhere x

I went to a day nursery after my mum died {aged 2 yrs 8 months} {I refer to ''mum'' on some of my other posts, but she is my adoptive mum}

The nursery I went to was awful , we were yanked about, slammed down on toddler lavatories {I fell down one -I was wearing dungarees} -
We were force fed with our mouths jammed open with spoons- rough treatment was common.

The ''boss'' was a vast mountain of a woman with flabby hams for arms- even now I recoil at that look because of the memories-

Thankfully Dad took me away and I went to a much better one run by a wonderful kind young woman ''Miss Burford''.
The children here were so much happier.

@Emrald1 Please, please report this awful woman. 🙏

As per pp, report to the area’s LADO. They may pass it back to management to investigate and handle but it will get taken seriously and won’t be brushed under the carpet. Mention of the LADO to education and childcare settings puts the fear of god into management and safeguarding teams! (Speaking as a DSL).

That poor child 💔

My grandson was on the cusp of beginning to talk - he had delayed speech and had not yet started to talk at nursery but would say the odd word at home. He's since been diagnosed ASD - he's five now. He was fully potty trained before the age of two and has never had accidents - not even during the night. He started nursery when he was two years, six months.

My daughter took her son to nursery as usual and he started screaming as they walked towards the door. He was screaming 'no mummy' repeatedly and sobbing so much he was retching. He threw himself on the floor. He was sweating and shaking and wouldn't allow his mum to touch him. He wet himself he was so scared. His key worker appeared concerned and was softly asking was what wrong and he had started repeating 'scared mummy'.

My daughter took him home and he began to say things like 'she shout me, she throw bag me, she bang mine head, she pull me, she potty me all day'.

He had very little language at that point, in fact it was the most we had ever heard him say at the time.

We reported what he had said but we never got to find out what had happened. This op reminds me of what my grandson was trying to describe.

He never went back.

God knows what happens to the children who cannot yet speak.

And there were no repercussions so it probably continues.

It should be a legal requirement to have all areas of a nursery covered by cctv imo.

And then there are posts saying how their baby cries when going to nursery and at handover and how it's been going on for weeks and others come on to assure her that the child will "settle down". How else can a non-verbal child communicate its distress?

Trouble is - it could equally be separation anxiety and the staff are lovely...

@nooooname I realised this when I worked in an old people's home at 17..

I was so young and naive and had nothing to compare it to. No one was physically hit or anything like that but what I saw was 100 unacceptable.
I realised how vulnerable you are when you are impaired and in the hands of others.
Then when my own dp had episodes in care like after an operation and so on and they were verbal how awful it was.

You can get most amazing staff but it only takes one really nasty one to ruin everything and create fear and dread.
I know many nursery have camera and I feel anywhere with vulnerable people should introduce them, it's the only way.

I saw staff having a amazing rapport with visiting adult dc at the home, putting it on and I knew they had not one ounce of care or compassion for their relatives.

Exactly. I often feel frustration building up when dealing with my young children’s tantrums (which I are a totally normal part of development and to be expected) but what gets me through is the unconditional love I obviously have for them. I couldn’t look after other people’s children (3 at once due to ratios) all day every day while being paid minimum wage and not feel burnt out.

I would somehow notify the parents too.

The pure rage I would have if I found out it was My dc would be next level ! I'd slam her to the ground too.
This is one reason my dcs were never going to a nursery.

She’s right. I’d do all I could to avoid it.

I totally agree. You've got great people who love kids. You've also got an environment of not brilliantly paid staff, some very young, long hours. I believe the shit that goes down sometimes would be upsetting to truly know.

I wish I could have found a better quality childcare provision if I could go back in time. Cameras all the way I agree.

Oh god that’s horrific :(

OP should definitely not go straight to the child's parents unless she wants to lose her job and probably not work in nurseries locally again.

She needs to follow the nursery's whistle blowing policy.

Omg, it’s terrible how little importance is placed on the early years.

Nurseries/preschools need way more funding. They need well paid, highly educated professionals. Early education needs to be given the same regard as that of older children. They are literally laying the foundations of the rest of their lives!

Aaagh.

Absolutely, 100% go to LADO, op. It doesn’t look like you’d get very far if you just went to management. It’s a very scary and downright dangerous person who treats a tiny, innocent child like that.

@littleluncheon she can do it anonymously that parents child is being abused and causing the child trauma and that parent is paying handsomely for it.

Any of us would want to know.

Op can do a few things at the same time

Brutes and bullies should NOT be in charge of children {Or the vulnerable, full stop}
Yes, children and the elderly are hard work, but having adequate staffing levels and kind treatment goes a long way.

CCTV ought to be mandatory in all nurseries and care homes.

You need to report to LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer). Contact info should be available in the nursery or Google would be able to tell you who it is and how to get in touch.

Always report. If it’s not listened to ofsted is your next step.

And there is this recent thread - also relating to 15 month olds up to 2 years of age.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5260994-to-think-this-shouldnt-be-said-to-nursery-children?page=2

Or there should be more encouragement from the government for parents to look after their own young babies. I agree that early years are extremely important but babies don’t need formal education. Instead of giving more funding to nurseries, households with stay at home parents should be given tax credits.

You needed to write down the dates and times if you have cctv. If they are good management they will look back and do more about it.
you can report to lado.