Is under staffed a phrase I should ever hear

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I have just been told in a matter of fact , no cause for concern way that the nursery school my son is at is now today under staffed . The more I think about this the more concerned I am becoming in fact I am close to panic . He is almost 4 and has attended this nursery for almost a year . I chose this nursery as it is part of the school I want him to attend .I would like to know what I can ,should do .Would removing him be over reacting is this a common situation . I belive funding is provided to the school per pupil so is there ever an excuse to tell a parent that they are leaving there child in the care of an under sraffed nursery . I am going to go and get him now as writing this has made me relise how worried I am . I have never been on this site before I will check back and any advice given would be much appriciated . Thank you

You may be over reacting, but you may not be. A lot of nurseries have a normal operational staffing level which is above the legal minimum to allow some flexibility in staffing levels for breaks, sick leave and holidays. "Under staffed" in this context may just mean "we're not allowed to have more than one person on holiday at a time at the moment".

There are specific child-carer ratios which are legally enforceable for each age group. I would be very concerned if this ratio was being broken in the littlest baby age group but for the 3-4s the legal ratio is 1:13 - in my son's class they normally have 25-30 kids and 3 staff members so if one staff member were to be absent on a day when there were more than 26 kids they would be breaking that limit - but I doubt the children would be significantly disadvantaged by such an occurence.

Who told you this? was it rumour or a statement from the nursery itself? Surely you can talk to the management and get some more facts?

ratio is only 1:13 for nurseries with a level 6 practitioner, and a full level 3 as well. between the hours of 8-4.

I am guessing they meant they did not have their extra comfort staff, but totally reasonable to ask for a proper explanation