Please tell me your 1st impressions of this nursery

[NannyStar]

Please tell me what you think of this nursery Baytree Park paying particular attention to the menu.

Not enough fresh fruit and veg.

Message withdrawn

have not read any other posts so as to give you my honest opinion but I am distictly unimpressed by the menu.

Don't like the phrase officer in charge either.

or the phrase school room

I am not alone then

OH god I would die if if my child went there - but how can the parent's not realise. Ithink the nursery dd goes to is fantastic but at the start I would pop in all hours to check what was happening!

day nurseries are inspected annually. the website says its last inspection was 2003. hhhummm

First impressions for me are that there is too much focus on after school/holiday clubs, the menu is awful with too many sweets, treats and processed food, the staff appear to be 'posing' for the photos in the gallery. Look at the woman sitting behind the lo doing the creative activity. She is not involved with any other children, no interaction at all and the woman sitting with the child is also pulling a face I can only assume to be an 'I'm being photographed so better smile' pose, whilst not interacting with the little one.

Just my opinion but based on that site, I wouldn't even go and view it tbh.

not all nurseries are inspected annually unfortunately

Have only looked at the menu so far. There is no provision for a vegetarian child is there?

Didnt' like the menu, but also was surprised by 'most of the babies like to sleep in their own prams, but a cot is available if required'.
The nursery my children went to had cots in a sleep area for the littlest ones. and sleep mats/big rocky loungers for the bigger ones.

I didn't think menu was great.
Can't they give yogurt in place of some of the buns and cakes?
Too little veg.
Also a long time between dinner and afternoon snack.
Lots of kids need to be fed small regular meals.
Nursery looks a bit cluttered in some of the photos.
Look in the background and not just at the kids playing.

I don't like the website - it's showy, cheesy, badly done and makes me feel uncomfortable. As for the menu, it sucks. (At DS's nursery they have a cook who makes home-made lunches like risotto, vegetable soup, tomato pasta etc, they have yoghurt-type puddings, and toast and fruit for snacks. "Buns" my arse!)

Combined with what others have said on this thread - I'd stay away.

Not impressed with the menu. Is this at all normal for a day nursery? Some days there are no FAVUs at all.

am amazed at fees to £27 a day , now feeling even more hard done by at our £42 a day

and kinda dissapointed at the menu too - at dd's nursery they always have fruit at morning break and all other meals except breakfast.

just realised this nursery is in manchester, guess thats why the lower fees - here in kent we teachers all earn huge salaries (not!) oh well - all in all the site is "impressive" but didn't impress me iykwim.

I run a small community nursery and to me this looks like one of the chain nurseries just trying to make money and then the care comes second. At my nursery the whole emphasis is care healthy living and promoting a good start to their education. The children do all look fairly happy in the photos but from a proffesional opinion the nursery does look cluttered and the menu is appauling! we offer homemade organic hot meals and puddings every day and it is always all gone. It is not hard to provide a healthy alternative for growing children yet often some people are just to lazy to do this.
I am glad you got out when you did and I can honestly not understand how they got quality assurance if it as bad as you say it is. Do you know what their last OFSTED inspection outcome was?

the last inspection was 'satisfactory'- i had a look. if you google 'ofsted inspection' it takes you to a home page for all inspections. just type in your postcode and voila.

If they recieved a satisfactory report then the period ofsted leave the nursery is 3 years which means they are due for one and if you have informed them of your concerns then they will be visiting more than likely very soon.

But by satisfactory oftsed mean not really good enough but not horrific - hadly a glowing recomendation

£27 a day is about average for around here as well - Lancashire

The menu is dire, IMHO. And I don't understand why they're using so much processed food. Fresh produce doesn't need to be expensive. Cheaper cuts of meat etc for casseroles can be stretched with pulses etc. Seasonal fruit and veg isn't expensive, either. I think that they would be better advised (assuming they have a reasonably well-equipped kitchen) to spend the money on a cook/chef's salary.

Bear in mind that full-time daycare children may be eating up to 10 main meals a week plus snacks at a nursery.

Don't think kids should be eating cakes/buns/icecream/jelly/biscuits or any of the other sweet things on a daily basis. Twice a week ok but I don't want my dc eating that stuff EVERY day (in fact I think they get served sweet foods 3x day if I remember the menu correctly).