( sorry this is a long one)
Some of you might just about remember me posting about dd going missing from her nursery back in October. It was about the single worst day of my life: I arrived to collect her and found an irate lady in the doorway giving the staff an earful. Walked past about 3 members of staff and was pointed towards the wendy house where dd was sitting, soaking wet and bedraggled. Only when i asked for an explanation did the nursery manager explain that she must have escaped somehow, through the 'secure' door, out of another door, through the car park, out into the street and into the road where the lady in question, driving a 4x4 just managed to break in time and (thank you God) took her back to the nursery, where the staff hadnt even noticed she'd gone.
Cue me almost passing out,collapsing on dd in a heap, swearing i'd never let her back in the place and spending the next few weeks in utter shock while newspapers, ofsted inspectors, and all manner of educational types from the local authority began to swarm on the place.
About a month later, after the nursery staff and headteacher had grovelled and promised and sworn that measures would had been enforced that would prevent anything like that ever happening again, I had to face the fact that our deprived rural community has only one 'decent' nursery, (i.e this one), that we don't drive and getting her anywhere else would be nigh on impossible, and people kept saying 'well, after something like this, perhaps this would be the safest place for her to be; the staff will be so much more vigilant than they would have been had this never happened.' So, against my own better judgement, and with my heart in my mouth every single time, i let her go back. I stayed with her for the first few weeks and then gradually let go.
One of the key precautions taken was to install an inner gate which divides off the main room from the front door. The idea (i'm guessing) is that it works a bit like an airlock on a space shuttle, creating a space where the 'traffic' only flows one way and little people can't run out between people's legs whilst the adults are distracted (which is how they think she got out in the first place). I presumed that the staff would shut the gate behind them before opening the door to let parents and children in, then close the door before opening the gate. However, what happens more often than not is that the member of staff opens the gate, leaves it open, opens the door, lets us in, shuts the door and then closes the gate once we're all in the main room. (hope this makes sense). Now, is it me, or does this defeat the whole object of having the gate fitted in the first place?
I feel that dd's incident was evidence enough that staff vigilance alone isn't sufficient to stop escapees, and there's little point in having a gate if you're going to leave it open and tell the kids who are already behind it to 'stay there' while you open the door. So, I've had words with the nursery manager, and she promised me she would ensure the staff all used the gate as it was intended from now on. But the truth is they're still really inconsistant about it. So, i had words with the headteacher on Wednesday and he made the same promises. I turned up this morning to drop dd off and what did the nursery manager do? Yep, she left the frickin' gate open while she opened the door to let us in! Offs, i'm starting to feel she's deliberately trying to wind me up. I should have said something, I know i should but i was afraid it would come out as 'Close the fucking gate, it's not rocket science!' so i kept quiet.
I just don't know how many more times i can moan and complain and nag about this one. Perhaps the whole thing is completely unworkable. Perhaps there's just not enough hours in the day to mess about with the bloody gate....
I know they all think i'm a complete pita and i'm sick of saying the same things over and over and i'm starting to wonder if this is just my OCD showing through, or what.