Advice about starting in Toddler room

[lizardqueenie]

Hello, just after a bit of advice- my dd is due to start nursery in Aug, she'll be 20 months. She'll be going straight into a room where the other children are 24 months plus (up to pre-school age when they move into another room). She'll be there for 2 full days.

The nursery said when we were arranging her place That they wouldn't start her in the under 2's room as she'll prob take around 6 weeks to settle & then they's need to move he again Ito the toddler room. This makes perfect sense to me but my DM looked horrified & was concerned about the bigger children & my DD and whether she would be ok.

Do I have anything to worry about here? Do I need to say something to the nursery? Thanks for any advice :)

I think you are right to not be worried as at our nursery they often move children from the baby room to the toddler room (which has up to 5yr olds in too) early if there is space. Tbh I think your 20mo will be bored senseless in the baby room and will get much more out of going straight into the toddler room, past about 20mo the older walking and starting to talk toddlers look so out of place with the smaller babies!

Thanks for your reassurance panicked that's what I thought. I think they have 2 kind of interconnecting rooms, one for small babies & the other for slightly older but it makes sense to me that she starts in te room where is going to settle & gets used to staff etc rather than have to be moved. Also she's not a small girl, quite tall compared to others her age do I think she'll be ok.

Does anyone else have advice about settling her in? Thank you

She will be fine. They know what they are doing.
I went back to work in January and my dd started nursery at 6mths. She spends most
Of her time with older ones (12mths plus), when she is the only one in the baby room!
Is she/has she had any taster/settling in sessions? They are quite good.
Hope it goes well for her, and you!

Hi mentalpup thanks for your reply. glad your DD has settled in nicely too. I think they always gravitate towards slightly older ones don't they?

We have a week of settling in sessions before she officially starts. As I'm not working at the moment I hope to get her nicely settled & then find something part-time so I do feel quite relaxed about settling her, it's takes as long as it takes. The other things I liked about the nursery were they have doors to each room where you could look in & see what your child is doing/ if they've stopped crying after 5 mins and also CCTV that you can view to see how they are doing.

If she's under 2 just be sure that they maintaining the correct staff:child ratios. For children under 2 that's 3 children to each adult rising to 4 children per adult after 2. Whilst this might seem not to be a big deal, there is a quite a big difference in development between a 20 month and a 36 month old (the age range in the room). An extra pair of eyes and hands is important at this age. A good nursery should understand this and be prepared to ensure the extra support for your daughter for the first 4 months, beyond the settling in if she is going straight to the toddler room.

Thanks orangeone that's a very good point actually & thanks for thinking of it. I'm going to send them an email about it just to check what the ratios are & to ask how they will be able to support DD in that room.