Nursery issues

[MintTeaForMe]

First week of DS's settling-in period at his new nursery. He is 3yo and an independent boy, full of fun and generally happy to be left in new situations.
He's not very enthusiastic to say the least (but he doesn't cry when left). The problem isn't him, it's the nursery setting. Very, VERY noisy, mainly because there is always a child crying. I sat through an hour of this noise earlier today (DS didn't know I was there) and the same thing yesterday (an inconsolable little girl who vomited twice) and I left feeling wrung out by the whole experience. Is it normal for a 3yo to be expected to cope with a day in this environment (9 - 4pm) and not feel stressed? He loves a bit of noisy fun, but this is different, and I think his very muted reaction to the nursery is telling. Also DS is the only child settling in at the moment (and they didn't settle any children in in August) which means the other children have been there for at least a month! I'm worried.

How many are in the classroom and why are they crying? Is the crying being managed I.e are the crying children being consoled?

Nurseries are noisy. So are schools. I helped on a school trip and had to have a half hour decompress with tea and cake after, it was so noisy on the coach.

It's all new for your son so don't worry if he isn't filled with enthusiasm, give him time to settle in and for it to become normal. The fact he is ok to be left and not one of those crying is a good sign. Hang on in there!

Thanks for replying Heels.
Sixteen children in the classroom, two teachers. It's an open plan space, so if a child is crying in one group the other fifteen hear it.
With the wailing, inconsolable little girl her teacher attempted to calm her down but kind of lost patience and kept saying to her 'no tears, no tears, ok?' (and I don't think you should make children feel ashamed of crying), but then there was another boy who was left wailing on the floor who wasn't addressed. They just carried on as normal around him until he joined back into the group. Today the main issue was another boy who cried for at least twenty minutes. I couldn't see whether they were consoling him, but if they were it wasn't very effective.
I did look around a nursery some time ago which was much more calm (spent an hour and a half there), unfortunately it's term-time only which isn't an option for us (and massively, massively oversubscribed). It's not the noise per se (DS loves noise!) it's the fact that it's the noise of clearly very unhappy children that is going to make anyone feel stressed if they have to listen to it for eight hours a day!

I think I would ask the manager how they deal with children who are upset, it's fine to mention that you have seen a few upset children and you wonder how they deal with it. It doesn't sound like they are managing it very well in that respect and hearing lots of crying is distressing for the others as you say.

I agree with heels - it doesn't sound very good.

I run a nursery with up to 32 three and four year olds in each session. Of course, children cry from time to time, but they are always consoled using words, cuddles, strokes etc. depending on what the child is comfortable with. It certainly doesn't make the setting noisy or overwhelming because we do everything we can to reassure the other children too.

I did have a child last year who became so distressed within 5 minutes of his parents leaving that she was sick. We asked them to come back straight away and agreed that they would stay at every session, gradually withdrawing from him until he was ready to be left.

We would definitely be phoning the parents if a child was so upset that they vomited. In fact, I phoned a parent today because their child was upset (for a very specific reason which had already been discussed with the parent) and the parent came to nursery to support their child to finish the last 45 minutes of the session.

You say that there are 2 "teachers". Are they really teachers, or are they nursery assistants? I would suggest talking to the manager as it sounds like the nursery staff need some additional training.