To ask if nursery staff should be allowed to speak to other members of staff?

[Surething97]

I don't mean constantly standing around chatting, whilst the children get on with it. But I mean should they be able to chat to other members of staff whilst working about their own lifes, what they did at the weekend, their holiday plans, anything? As well as having interactions with children.

I couldn't work in a place like that. Is it because there has been a lack of focus on the children and their needs.

I think it’s fine if it’s quick chats here and there, but maybe there was a problem of staff having long chats and not interacting with the children as much as they should?

I work in care (totally different area) and I can imagine the circumstances that brought this rule about. Chatting, possibly bitching, children being spoken over and not to. I wince when family members are visiting my area, their relative may be sitting unoccupied while staff are gossipping and laughing at the other side of the room for extended periods. Also basic tasks tend to start getting mussed once a chatty culture is in place, to much focus on the gossip and noones mind is on the vulnerable people. So, I do actually understand where his has cone from

If toddlers don't need staff to be constantly playing with them though. Or standing over them they need to be able to play alone sometimes and to interact with the other children. They also need to experience normal adult interaction, and to hear them talking to each other. One of the reasons I don't like nurseries is they are very removed from normal life. And staff not being allowed to talk to each other is an example of that
Of course staff shouldn't be talking over the children, ignoring them, saying inappropriate things or talking to each other at the expense of the children but I don't see the problem with normal interaction.

Having also been in the position of bank staff in nurseries this sums it up, it's absolutely dire when you don't interact with anyone except the babies/toddlers for an entire shift. The regular staff chat amongst themselves on and off all day usually but aren't really interested in bank staff so you get to feel what it's like to not have that interaction. If they banned general chitchat completely I'd imagine you would have a lot of depressed staff who won't be doing their job well because they are fed up of being there, seems counterproductive to me.

Clearly you were caught having a long chat about personal lives and NOT doing your job which is to interact with the children under your care, so frankly I can see why you were told off. Own it and stop chatting and do the job you’re hired to do.

I’d be pissed off if I knew that the teachers working with my child were more interested in talking to each other than him, he has a developmental language delay and absolutely needs adult interaction, not just verbal but lots of non-verbal interaction too. He doesn’t interact with peers yet as he needs to build relationships with trusted adults. I’m sure other more verbal children benefit from adult interaction in a setting otherwise what’s the point?

This. I wouldn't want somewhere where my child was ignored all day but having idle chitchat is absolutely normal and part of every day life.

It does children good to learn to occupy themselves for a bit. I certainly don't spend the 12 hours my child is awake when they are at home just solely focused on them and not talking to anyone else, I'd be absolutely exhausted otherwise. Me and my husband will talk to each other and if we're having playdates with friends or seeing family, the adults will talk while the kids play.

Of course if the children were ignored or there was no interaction that isn't right, but I want my child in a nursery where there are staff teams that are happy and get on well together.

we are supposed to be engaging with the children at all times yes even during free play when children choose what they want to do staff should be engaging, that as well as planning activities doing assessments and observations I don't see when there is time to chat about personal things apart from when on dinner.

If you’re constantly engaging with the children trying to do free play then they’re not free playing at all. You’re leading it. That is not helpful to them at all.

But it is free play isn't it they have gone to what area in the room they want to play in they have choose the toys or whatever they want to play with, I am literally engaging by saying o have you chosen that book etc then on to next child and so on or like I say doing observations and assessments during that time.

If it’s literally that yes but I can imagine how annoying it would be to most pre schoolers who are trying to do imaginative play to have an adult constantly in their face going oh look you’re playing with the dinosaur what is the dinosaur doing? What will he have for lunch today?

Independent and imaginative play is such a valuable skill, you have to give children space to do it, as long as they know they can come to you for engagement or help if they want or need it.

Actually the preschoolers are more than happy for staff to engage with them infact alot seek the staff out and ask them to play, I've worked in a few nursery's over the years and engagement with the children at all times has been a must.

At all times?! When they’re trying to play with their peers or play independently? Really?

I find that very hard to believe. In fact it sounds like a very unnatural set up- have you worked for one that follow some sort of ethos that says engagement from an adult at all times is necessary?

I worked in a nursery for 4 years. We never had this rule but to be honest we probably should have. I'd say 80% of the time staff just chatted to each other, sometimes about the children but mostly about themselves. Maybe 20% of the time was interacting with the children. I remember this one woman who never shut up, any child needing attention was a massive inconvenience to her and I really hated working in a room with her.

So long as they are not discussing who they are going to shag at the weekend what substance they are going to shove up their nose and what they get leathered on I couldn't care less.
When I'm out with my friends with my daughter she hears us discuss adult stuff and real life.
I don't want her growing up thinking life is fluffy bunnies and rainbows, because it ain't.

I can only see 2 reasons a rule like this would be brought into a nursery

1. There is too much chat going on and that has been to the detriment of the job
2. A child has repeated something inappropriate that they have overheard staff chatting about at nursery to their parent and the parent has raised it with the nursery

Option 2 wouldn’t surprise me at all depending on the age of the kids. My daughter is just turned 1 so isn’t quite at copying age yet but my godson is nearly 3 and while we were out for lunch a few weeks ago the man behind us in the queue was talking to his friend about how he’d had 7 pints the night before and was feeling hungover. For the rest of the afternoon my godson was saying he was hungover (he has no idea what this actually means) and that he’d had 20 pints. I can see where in that situation you could have a child who goes home and repeats something inappropriate they have heard and if that gets fed back to the nursery this rule puts a stop to it.

The difference there though is that she is your daughter and so that is your decision to make.

adults must engage in free play just by sitting and making non verbal body language or mmms and aaas of agreement, that’s an incredibly important part of children building up from parallel play to play that involves other people, often they need a trusted adult to bridge the gap and model/scaffold this step. Eg child x plays contentedly with water tray, trusted adult sits by, watching and non verbally showing interest. Child x gradually notices adult and hands them a cup, points to the water and watches adult pour it, then next time child x will give a cup to a child who is nearby.

that’s very different from children free playing and an adult butting in and controlling/changing the play, e.g. loudly saying what are you doing? Oooh let’s use the purple cubes, can you say purple cubes? No, not the RED cube, get the PURPLE cube! Etc and making the interaction what they need to tick off from an observation sheet.

Absolutely! If anything it fosters good relations between staff which will improve moral and the general environment.

Christ, some of these replies. And people wonder why there's a staffing crisis in early years 🙄