outstanding - is it really?

[IWannaBeLikeYou]

DS is almost 3 yrs old and goes to nursery full-time. It is a "good" nursery as per Ofsted reports, but I (and DH) am not very happy with it.
I went around local nurseries again as I would like to change, but I can't really see much difference. They all seem the same, same kind of very young staff some with no much experience, etc.
Ofstead have a list of "outstanding" providers and I went to visit one of these nurseries recently. I must admit it "looked" better, but I couldn't see a huge difference.
Any of you with children at outstanding nurseries are you entirely happy?

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My ds1 was in a wonderful nursery with some older staff but some fantastic young ones too. The building was tatty, the toys not very new or exciting, but the general atmosphere was brill and the staff were really really caring. (They looked after parents brilliantly, as well as kids. We were always welcome to go for a cup of tea, watch the kids play, chat to the staff etc)

It closed down and we tried 4 different nurseries for ds2, all of which looked OK, but which were rather a conveyor belt for kids, and didn't make us feel he was being really looked after. We ended up with a childminder, who was lovely.

We took no notice of offsted reports by the way, we went by our gut feeling. As you say, we couldn't fault them 4 on the outside. They said and did lots of good things, but the staff just didn't connect with us, and ds wasn't impressed either. He loved his cuddly childminder and flourished there.

Keep on looking around.

DS comes home really frustrated some days so I suspect he doesn't get enough attention. Some of the staff don't seem to get involved in activities too much in the sense that they are there just watching the children to make sure they don't kill each other, but don't do much else.

I'm also not very happy with the cleanness of the nursery.

I've always been careful at home when it comes to using cleaning products for ex, but I've seen nursery staff spraying cleaning chemicals on the furniture right under children's nose, so surely that can't be very good.

I could go on and on with all these not so biggies, but enough to make me want to change nursery.

Just wanted to know if outstanding makes a difference.

you cant always believe what ofsted reports say as it is a moment in time and may not reflect a true picture. this could work the other way i know nurseries where they have had an inspection and report should be good but the staff have frozen under the pressure and not performed as normal so only got a satisfactory, so look at reports but also go with your gut feeling when yhou visit

I agree with you NurseryVoice. But it's quite difficult to make a decision based on a 1/2 hour visit.
I went by the gut feeling when I chose current nursery and in time it proved not to be as good as it seemed.

That's why I find it difficult to change because I'm afraid it could make things worse for DS.

I'm also reluctant to make complains at current nursery, as I'm afraid it may turn against my DS.