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Nurseries

Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum. For more guidance on early years development, sign up for Mumsnet Ages & Stages emails.

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Original poster

Nursery not moving children along as too full

21 replies

TheSkiingGardener · 10/03/2015 17:53

DS2 recently turned 2. As such he is meant to move along to the next room in the nursery to be with his peers. However, I have been told that there are already 5 children older than him waiting to move through and he may not move for months as the above rooms are full. This means his room has children from just turned 1 to nearly 2 and a half. It's a busy room and it's meant for 1-2 year olds.

What grounds do I have to complain here and get this sorted out.

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insancerre · 10/03/2015 19:16

None
How can you get it sorted?
You can't
The children will be fine in the room till they can move
I think its nice to have mixed ages together, the children will benefit
I can't see the problem
If you don't like it then take him out and find another nursery

TiggyD · 10/03/2015 19:16

How do you suggest they solve it? Expel some children from the next room up? Build a quick extension? Ignore the floor space/child ratios?

Unless parents consult with the nursery before conception there's always going to be 'lumps' in the flow of children throughout the rooms. I suggest they do what most nurseries do and remove ages from all their rooms.

Original poster

TheSkiingGardener · 10/03/2015 19:28

I guess the problem is they do have ages on the rooms, with stage appropriate equipment and activities.

I'm angry as most of these kids have been in the nursery well over a year, it's no surprise which kids are going to need to move up when. They are saying they can't move anyone until the oldest kids go to school. So the 3 year olds above my DS won't start the preschool area until 6 months late as well.

It's shit management to have that big a bump. A few weeks or even a month I could understand.

OP posts:

Dognado · 10/03/2015 19:31

If they left availability open they would either have to put up prices, or have less places if you're accessing free care.

Original poster

TheSkiingGardener · 10/03/2015 19:36

But of course they have to. They can't just move everyone once a year in September, and they don't, no nursery does.

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JassyRadlett · 10/03/2015 19:45

But of course they have to. They can't just move everyone once a year in September, and they don't, no nursery does.

Ours tries to, with pockets of a few kids moving at other times to smooth things out or for developmental need. But after the baby rooms (up to rising 2), the main moves happen in a period of around 6 weeks over the summer and after 2 they try to more or less keep them with their school years.

The reality is that kids who are in the preschool are unlikely to move until they are leaving to go to school. So the kids in the next room won't move until then, etc.

There is some flex - there is bags of space so they can flex room numbers based on need if there is a relatively large cohort who just aren't ready yet.

Honestly, I think it's fine - aa long as the activities are age-appropriate.

bloodyteenagers · 10/03/2015 19:51

Yes nurseries can and do move yearly.

If you are not happy with the arrangements you can either move nursery or home school.

Original poster

TheSkiingGardener · 10/03/2015 20:03

But are they age appropriate? They have a tiny garden space with nothing to climb and no vehicles, the inside is designed to be safe for non walkers and again has nothing for children starting to be more physical. They don't do numbers, letters or even colours really as its all play for non verbal and emerging verbal children.

OP posts:

Original poster

TheSkiingGardener · 10/03/2015 20:04

And it's not what we were sold, which was a clearly spelled out progression from room to room around their birthdays.

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Crazycatlady27 · 10/03/2015 20:06

They certainly should be doing numbers and colours with the children, regardless of their age.

JassyRadlett · 10/03/2015 20:11

Then I think that needs to be the basis of your discussion - that you don't think the older kids are being stretched (no reason they can't visut the older kids' garden once a day) and that it isn't how it was set out to you, and what is their progression plan for the rest of nursery.

Honestly, having moved DS before his peer group once at nursery's suggestion because his soeech was way ahead of his peers, I put a lot more importance on moving more or less with their peer group than I did before. It won't matter as much when they're just two, but DS moved at 2.4 into a room of his age and up to a year older who'd been in the room together for months and established friendship groups already. It was really tough for him socially and he struggled for a long time. When the rest of his peer group moved up, his confidence changed overnight. I really regret moving him away from his year group.

fivepies · 10/03/2015 20:32

I totally understand your frustration, I went through something similar. My DD was in an 'outstanding' nursery and at 2 they kept promising to move her up. She was an early walker so had already spent too long in a small room with younger babies. The nursery was full to capacity so there just wasn't space for her in the next class. Like you we had been told that she would move up at 2. In the end I moved her to a different nursery where she went straight into the 2 year old room. We are very happy with her in the new nursery. The owner deliberately choses not to operate at full capacity so there is more flexibility.

Elfen · 12/03/2015 21:32

Actually I just came on here to post my own problem, which is sort of the opposite: our nursery has said that as they like to move ALL the children up from the 2 year old room to the 3-4 year old room, my child will have to have different days or we will have to leave. I am very upset by this and would rather (as I had assumed would happen) my child simply remained in the 2 year old room until space became available on days suitable for us.

I think it must be a problem in nurseries generally, trying to fit children in around parents' timetables and children's ages and staff-child ratios. It would be reasonable to expect you might have to wait a while, but I'm not sure how long is reasonable. If the room is designed/aimed at 1-2 year olds yet children of two and a half are in there, the room and activities should be altered to suit their needs, of course.

AlexD72 · 16/03/2015 20:16

We have has this problem in nurseries I have worked in. We always made sure there were activities for the older children and that each child's needs were meet. You can ask and you should ask how your child's needs are going to be meet in a room where there are younger children. All rooms should promote numbers letters and colours. We always moved children up in pairs as this way they felt they weren't on their own in a new room. It is difficult if the nursery is full but it can be managed in a way that works for parents and children.

Pico2 · 16/03/2015 20:48

We had this problem with DD1 a couple if years ago. In the March when she was 2.5 she became the oldest in the room. Children who were a couple of weeks older than her but developmentally not as ready as her had been moved up (and their parents said to me how odd it was). When I phoned the nursery to find out when she would move up, they said only once the preschool children started to leave. Given the number of rooms at the nursery this basically meant that DD would never be in a room with older children again. While this might not be a problem for every child, we felt that it wouldn't suit DD. So we found a new, more flexible nursery. DD has absolutely thrived there. She went into the 2-3 year room at the new nursery with the plan that she would move into the 3-4 room at the following Christmas. A week into the autumn term I was approached by the manager to say that DD had moved herself up and was that ok. It was brilliant that they had the capacity and flexibility to let DD do that.

Original poster

TheSkiingGardener · 20/03/2015 15:09

It's interesting to hear how different nurseries deal with it. After I made it clear how unhappy I was I was suddenly informed that DS2 would be moving up at the end of the month, along with 3 other children. Space magically became available once I had become cross...

OP posts:

YonicScrewdriver · 25/03/2015 23:40

In my nursery, if space meant children staying down, they did a few visit afternoons when ratios allowed so that facilities were accessible.

TSG, it's not as easy as a school where everyone goes full time and more or less all children go year after year after year. Children may move their days around, a parent leaves their job or goes on a second maternity leave and takes the child out so a "younger 2" leaves a space and an "older 2" takes it up etc.

ProudAS · 27/03/2015 21:05

Nurseries must know that they are going to be in greater demand in the summer (not just specific rooms but the entire place) due to pre schoolers having not yet left but babies still coming in. Do they run at reduced capacity in the autumn or take on extra staff in the summer or do parents all return to work in September?

TiggyD · 27/03/2015 22:25

Nurseries tend to staff lower, then get temp staff in the summer. Busy time for us agency bods!

YonicScrewdriver · 27/03/2015 22:37

Proud, ratios are by age group so the baby room is quite separated from the pre school room.

And what Tiggy said, for he knows!

ProudAS · 30/03/2015 22:37

How can the baby room not be affected by the pre-school room Yonic? I'm not a parent or childcare professional but I am curious.

I would have thought that a full pre-school room would mean children being kept in toddler room which in turn would mean lack of space for babies to move into toddler room??

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