Before I complain and make an idiot of myself....

[Spacemonkey2016]

My 3 year old is at a private nursery 2 days a week. Last week he mentioned some friends being back in his class last week who had left for school. I thought he was just confused. Today, when I was walking away from dropping him off at the door, I heard his keyworker say ' has come to play with us today.' She left in July and attends school. Is it right that the nursery are taking school leavers back for half term? I now have no idea which size of a bubble my son is now in. Potentially there could be 2 or 3 children, from various different schools at the nursery, each day.

That shouldn't be happening, right? Or am I overreacting? Tier 2 area.

This is the sort of thing you need to talk to the nursery about.

You need to talk to the nursery. It is common pre covid for nurseries and childminders to take kids just for the holidays. Each setting will have its own rules. I know my childminder has refused to take on any new kids, expect a young baby that doesn't go anywhere, to try and control who is mixing.

My nursery does this too. I can’t understand why you think it shouldn’t be happening?

It seems illogical to me that parents can't enter the building, in December when his sister goes, he can't see her whilst there, but they can add in undetermined amounts of children, who are mixing with 100s of children at schools. Seems utterly bonkers to me.

God I wish my DS's old nursery would do this.
We've got zero childcare so we're juggling work and entertaining a 6 year old all week in A tier 3 area!

I think it's fairly common and I'm sure they've done their own risk assessment. If you're taking your child to a nursery then you're accepting it's not risk free. The children who are usually in your child's bubble are likely to have brothers and sisters at home and could be mixing with lots of different people anyway.

My childminder has taken the school age children back for the holidays too. I don’t feel as though I’m in a position to challenge this, her earnings have taken a massive hit this year, and she has already stopped doing after school care for these children to minimise risk. Half terms don’t line up here so the parents are in a tricky predicament too as teachers.
She wouldn’t have taken them had there been any confirmed cases at the school. It’s not ideal but it’s the best compromise in the circumstances.

I'm glad I asked I think what I'll do is ask them how they risk assessed that being fine, but he's still not allowed to mix with his own sister when there/I'm not allowed to settle her in for an hour, even with a mask. That seemed hard, but acceptable when I assumed it was a blanket 'no visitor' policy. But now seems a little unfair.

Thanks for talking me down, all!

It is within the rules, and parents still need to go to work. If you're particularly concerned you could withdraw your child for the week/ two weeks, or do you need to work?

It's not ideal, but where else do you suggest they go?

@ChaChaCha2012

It is within the rules, and parents still need to go to work. If you're particularly concerned you could withdraw your child for the week/ two weeks, or do you need to work?

It's not ideal, but where else do you suggest they go?

He's my eldest child and quite genuinely had no idea they bought school children back to what is advertised as a 0-4 private nursery. I guess I just never knew. I know some nurseries do additional school wraparound care, but ours doesn't.

They've risk assessed it in line with the government guidelines, that state it is acceptable. What is not acceptable is multiple parents going in with their child for an hour, or mixing groups within the nursery.

If you've got a problem with the guidelines then speak to your MP.

The children aren't visitors though ...

Yehh our nursery has both kids in the holidays & after school as well. Indoors, the children in different rooms (in normal times as well) but outdoors, the after school kids are in the pre-school garden area. Although my daughter says they ‘never want to play mummy’, so I think most of them ignore the 3/4 year olds! 😂 I’ve long accepted that if we send DD to nursery, she may catch it. As far as I’m concerned they can carry on as normal (or at least doing what they can such as extra cleaning & hand washing etc).

It's possible that they take children who are reception but still 4, as the majority of mainstream holiday camps can't take 4 year olds for a full day.

When I was looking at returning to work last year my biggest issue was finding holiday care for my August born - most offered 3 hours a day due to the rules.

Thanks all. Glad I posted this before making a tit of myself. I genuinely had no idea!