AIBU to expect more professionalism from nursery?

[ov13]

Will try to keep this brief, I want to gauge how much I am over-reacting or not.

DS (2) nursery is a lovely setting but their management feels chaotic. Some examples:

• chef went on 2 week holiday, apparently the cover dropped out last minute so parents had to provide packed lunches
• chef has since quit with immediate effect (no notice period?) and for the foreseeable we are asked to packed lunches. We are being refunded the cost but it also means no warm meals (they say they can’t heat up any food we send in) there has been no apology, the language is more “we’re doing our best”
• last minute room closures notified at 7am on morning off, due to staff sickness
• their monthly newsletter is covered in grammar and spelling errors
• fire alarm this morning at drop off, the kids that were already there were stood outside in their socks and without coats, it is raining and 2 degrees today!

AIBU to expect a bit more professionalism from a nursery which has around 80 kids?

The only thing they really have any control over on that list is the newsletter.

Staff quitting, being unwell and an unexpected fire alarm aren't things within their control.

Newsletters shouldn’t have grammatical and spelling errors.
As for the other things they are things they really can’t control and they do seem to be doing their best.
As for the fire alarm, yes it’s not ideal children standing out in the rain without shoes and coats, but they need to get everyone out as quickly as possible.

Do you think they should try to get 30 toddlers into shoes before evacuating the building?!

This!!
you are expecting far FAR too much.

is it really the end of the world if they can't have hot food? Many kids survive on packed lunches for their whole schooling life.
staff sickness, this happens in all schooling environments. What do you expect them to do, hire staff at 8am? It's down to ratios.
a fire drill is just that. They don't always know it's a 'drill' either. Why are you expecting staff to put shoes and coats on 30+ children when the fire alarm is going off? You're gonna rather that than staff faffing about with shoes and coats if there's a real fire.

the only thing they can help is the news letter. But you'll look unhinged if you complain about some spelling and grammar.

YABU.

can you send a flask if you want a hot meal?

i think with the fire alarm the idea is urgency…

Regarding food - tbh if their chef quits and I’m paying for food as part of my fees, if be expecting them to find a temporary solution not expect me to start providing a meal each day.

I’ll go against the grain and say it does sound a bit of a chaotic vibe. I used a nursery like this, which then shut down really suddenly - peak chaos. The next nursery I used was much more professional, and they seemed to have better arrangements for things like covering staff sickness. Plus, overall, staff morale at the new nursery seemed better from what I could tell, which could have been relevant to the calmer feel.

Of course. But these things take time, they can't shit out a chef and pop them in the kitchen.

a refund in the interim is fine. I'm sure they're doing their best.

I couldn’t get worked up about any of that tbh. The newsletter would annoy me if it’s major and not just the odd one or two mistakes but children will be fine with cold meals until the chef is replaced and the rest I’m not really sure what else you expected them to do?

They can hire a temp though.

Or get someone else to make the food - the nursery could put together sandwiches or whatever surely?

I’d less bothered about a warm meal, but having to produce a packed lunch every day for an undefined period would annoy me as it creates an extra job for me.

This. Though I would have tried to slap some shoes on them unless there was an obvious inferno. But they were probably following some evacuation procedure.

You should see my dc’s secondary school communications. The spelling and grammatical errors. 😱 Every homework assignment. Newsletter. We got a 2 page form home to complete a few weeks ago. Two pages! I counted 5 spelling errors. I’m not sure why none of their staff use a basic spellchecker, but there you go. You’re probably in for a long ride.

I think some people don’t realise how hard it is to staff nurseries. Also some staff making sandwiches might not be possible to maintain ratios in the rooms

As with other posters the only one is the newsletter.

1. Chef cover drops out, if that is genuine then what can they do?
2. Chef leaves with immediate effect, I can assure you that officially the chef had a notice period but if someone chooses to ignore it what can you do?
3. Room closure due to staff sickness, far from ideal and I would like to think that they have a little bit of staff cover to be able to move staff around rooms to try and ensure there isnt a closure but if 2-3 staff are sick at the same time it is unavoidable.
4. If a fire alarm goes off (as long as it isn't a pre planned test, in this situation I would expect with cold and rain staff to have planned ahead with kids clothing) then the idea is to get out as soon as possible not spend time dressing toddlers while the building burns down!

I would argue that there is potentially an issue if your chef cover drops out and then your perm chef walks out, sounds like a poor working environment and something that needs to be addressed.

Firstly, are your kids happy and safe. If no, withdraw immediately. If not...

Ask to meet with them- and see if the meeting gives your some insight. You might find that maybe they will always be like this- lack of management skill/experience etc and it's going to bug you, then leave. I doubt it will change.

Otherwise stay.

This

Finding an experienced, reliable chef in 2025 is like finding a unicorn - and I say that as someone who’s worked in hospitality for 20 years, give them a break on that.

i’d rather my toddler was evacuated in socks than burnt to death in the event of a fire.

I will agree that the newsletter is the only thing they can really control in this situation.

And this is EXACTLY what the recruitment and retention crisis in some sectors looks like on the ground. In this case childcare, education and hospitality.

Cut them some slack, or find a different provider - that is your right as a customer.

How long has DS been at this nursery? I think there's a question of whether this is just an unfortunate cluster of things, or if they always seem to be lurching from one issue to the next.

Chef and fire alarm, I agree, there's not a lot they can do about that. Even making sandwiches and fruit for a whole nursery is a lot of time out of someone's day, and it's good for their feet not to be in shoes the whole day, even if that occasionally means briefly having cold, wet feet because the fire alarm went off.

The 7am closure I'd be less thrilled about. Once in a blue moon because multiple people are off sick at once and you can't get bank staff, okay, stuff happens – but this sounds like multiple incidents in a short period of time.

I think every newsletter I’ve ever received from a school or nursery or the after school club could do with proofreading. But I don’t stress it, they have a lot to do and a newsletter is just a bonus.

Sounds like they’re doing the best they can to hire a chef and refunding you for the food costs so not sure what else they can do. It will take a while to find someone. Annoying but not something I’d complain about as there isn’t really another option besides sending a packed lunch.

There’s so much sickness around just now so it’s not surprising that they are struggling to stay staffed. Also explains why they can’t just have staff making sandwiches.

obviously they can’t stand inside and put shoes on kids in an emergency. If it was a real fire you wouldn’t thank them for that at all so they have to do the drills properly.

I don't think any of those things are problems in isolation, but it does point to a nursery that has issues with staff retention and organisation and if it carried out I would probably be looking for somewhere else.

Nurseries are awful places to staff, staff often walk out and don’t return. There is a staffing crisis at the moment, it’s hard work, low pay and no one wants to do it. Unfortunately it means the remaining staff are u set so much more pressure. It sounds like your nursery has re staffing issue.. I’d look at moving my child, staff retention really does tell a picture of how the staff feel.

This made me laugh 😂 indeed they can't shit out a chef and some sandwiches won't kill toddlers for a few weeks until they get another chef,

Honestly op your expectations are ridiculous, get a childminder or nanny if you want no disruption and 1 to 1 care for your child.

If you have lost confidence in them you need to move your child.

We have very few nursery options here so I can overlook all of the above. The spelling and grammar I don’t have a problem with either. Nursery staff aren’t teaching English to them, and aren’t employed for their academic skills. They have other skills instead.

Oh no the chef is on holiday whatever will you do? 😂😂