What is the collection and drop off policy at your child's nursery?

[uberconscious]

Hello,

I started a thread about nursery selection but I wanted to know specifically about dropping off and collecting your child.

So some nurseries I visited required passport or photo ID at signing in and then strict policy of not having direct access to the children (great!/safe!) For collecting children the key worker would hand over the child at the front gate after you arrive and notify reception. The key worker would ID you as the parent and allow your child to leave with you. (Like!)

On the other end of the spectrum I've seen parents walk in and collect their child and leave. I felt it was unsafe and not a suitable way to ensure child safety in ensuring they did indeed leave with their parent / guardian.

There are some nurseries I've visited which are a middle ground of providing a key card system.

Would anyone be happy to share your child's / children's nursery arrival and collection process and your view?

We get buzzed in and someone and say hello to the person on reception/office then go to the room to collect (if they don't recognise someone then they're stopped at that point). At the room, the key worker fills us in on anything we need to know about the day then we go. Some of the bigger kids high-five DD on the way out - and sometimes me as well! - so interacting with other kids isn't frowned upon I don't think (although this is only if they instigate it - I don't run around high fiving random kids!).

If it's someone not known to the staff collecting I notify in advance and arrange a password, that they then get asked for. Although my mum looks really like me, so the staff knew who she was there to collect as soon as she arrived (they did still ask for the password).

(This is a day nursery rather than a pre-school, but it's the same for pre-school aged children as it is for the babies/toddlers)

So different here. Parents let themselves in via a gate to the playground and then find the staff member who has the class phone and we have keyring things that we press against the phone to log our child in and out. Half the time the phone is just left in the coatroom or just inside the building and parents just go and log their kids in and out themselves. This is a new system, when she first started there we were just expected to say to one of the teachers that we were dropping off or picking up.

The kids are usually outside playing when I drop my child off so she runs off to play, I log her in on the phone and say hi to one of her teachers and then pop inside to put her doggy in her cupboard. Same with pick up, they're always outside playing at pick up time so I go in and get her stuff, log her out and grab her. If I'm in a rush I ask one of the teachers to log her in/out for me.

Interacting with the other kids doesn't seem to be discouraged, her friends always run up to me for a quick chat and I'll smile and say hi to the little ones. Sometimes I've had to pick her up in the middle of the day for appointments and she's still eating her lunch or snack so I'll sit down at her table and chat with all the kids, its really lovely.

DS' nursery is very similar to littleducks description. I would absolutely hate some of the setups described. We chose the nursery because it was family-like, friendly and loving. Some of these descriptions make prison visiting hours sound pleasant!

Regarding nursery pick up policy
I have recently separated from my wife and she has enrolled her new boyfriend as able to pick up my son from nursery. However I think that it should be family members only anyone else could do the job, with the permission of all the family members. The thing is the mother and the boyfriend could have a fall out and the boyfriend could collect the child and keep him away from us.
Have I got a valid point

Yeah that's the same with mine. What is scary is the military type security procedures at some centres.

@grahamtorquay
The only way you can have control over who collects your child is to get a court order that stipulates who collects your child when
The law allows other people to collect your child with only one parent giving permission
Maybe you need to speak to your mp or something