Which nursery?

[Shadowboy]

I only have 2 to chose from due to where I work and my budget sadly.

1. OFSTED good. Total number of places a whopping 120! Set in a large detached Victorian house in a village on the edge of the city. Seemed very professional and clean. Each age group had 3 rooms available to them so plenty of room despite the number of registered children. £47 per day including home cooked food (Sainsbury's delivery arrived as I was looking round) they've been been very easy to contact/provide info etc.
   

10% discount for eldest sibling.

1. OFSTED outstanding. Small nursery of 22 (9 in baby room) small site. Older kids room is a wooden log cabin but it felt cold when I looked round. Also felt very cramped for the 13 children there. Food is brought in by caterer. It smelt a bit odd walking round (coudnt place smell- my eldest is currently at nursery and it's not a 'kiddy' smell) they have been a nightmare to contact regarding reading to view, getting fees etc. They were however lovely when I looked round- in fact I was there for well over an hour as they let my eldest join in their song and dance session. Babies £42(+£2.10 for food) and older ones £37 (+£2.10 for food) no discount. Lovely ethos for lots of outdoor play BUT there was only one older member of staff, the rest were all young girls (18, 19 and 20 year olds) the longest had been there only 3 years so worried about constant staff changes and lack of experience as my little one will only be 10months when she goes.

[Heirhelp]

If you had to pick one right now which would you go for?

Somebody who I know who works on nurseries said some keep the temperature on the warm side to make the children sleepy.

[cookielove]

I have never heard of nurseries keeping the rooms warm to make babies sleepy!! FYI I have worked in a nursery for over 10 years.

My nursery runs on the warm side due to under floor heating it does nothing to help us get the babies to sleep 😂😂

I would choose the first nursery, take a look at their ofsted report it will say why they didn't get an outstanding it may be something to do with paper work!

Also the young staff in the 2nd nursery wouldn't bother me, as long as they are engaging with the children and at their level then it's all good!

[Shadowboy]

Heirhelp- probably the first but worried about the size of the place and it being a bit too 'business' rather than knowing all the little ones more personally.

But the second just felt disorganised and the cramped feel for the older kids was a bit offputting- no where for them to nap if they need one that day.

I wish I had more to chose from. There is an independent school nursery I could afford but they don't do days only full weeks and my Ines only need Monday- Thursday so it makes it unaffordable as I'd have to pay £90 for the Friday which I don't need. But it looked amazing when I went round.

[Heirhelp]

I think you need to go with your gut instinct.

What age for older kids for no napping? Did you ask them about this?

[Afreshstartplease]

The first one

[Shadowboy]

From 3 upwards in the log cabin with no naps. My daughter is 2.5 so may well lose the naps by the time she starts in September at a new nursery. The first one had a 'quiet room' with mats they could sleep on.

My husband says the fact that the second is smaller and has an outstanding OFSTED should mean that is the one we should pick as they will get to know kids better. I think I prefer the first.

[Pipsicola]

I had more choice than you but got decision down to two nurseries with a similar dilemma. I picked the bigger nursery even though ofsted good not outstanding. It was a gut feeling that lead me to this. Look at your post and you barely mention anything negative about the first one - what does this tell you? I have found that my DD being in a bigger nursery was better as there are a few babies at exactly her age and development stage for her to bond with and she loves having free roam of a big area.

And a nursery is not a lifetime decision - if you chose one and it's not working, you can always switch to another (as long as your area doesn't have horrendous waiting lists)

[MissJSays]

I would go for the first one. You need to read the ofsted report and see what they've said they need to improve on. My nursery is rated 'good' I've worked at so called 'outstanding' nurseries and been shocked at some of the practice I have seen.
As an example, my nursery was rated good and not outstanding because we had a high number of SEN children and she felt that because we put so much effort into them we didn't do as much to encourage children with English as an additional language. We had no children with English as an additional language at that time.
There's obviously more to it than just these 2 points but I'd first look at how staff interact with children and their ability to form positive relationships with them. Next, the kinds of resources that are available to children so they have a wide variety of activities to chose from to support their learning and development. How many members of staff are first aid trained? Have staff been on safeguarding, food hygiene, behaviour management, autism training courses? I really think that management paying and sending staff on courses show that they care, as, apart from first aid, they don't have to do this.
Good luck!

[MissJSays]

I forgot to say! Go online and check their food hygiene rating. It's really not that hard to get 5, both our nurseries are 5, I think that's really important.

[chocoholic1234]

First one, definitely. The high number of young staff suggests they move on quite quickly - why? The size wouldn't worry me, as long as they have the space (and they appear to have more space per child than the smaller one). I wouldn't worry that not all the staff would know my child, as long as their key worker knew them well, and the other staff in the room knew their name and a little bit about them. Which should be the case whether there are 5 children in the room or 25.

[QuackDuckQuack]

When are the ofsted ratings from? It seems to be harder to get an outstanding rating now and an older rating doesn't tell you much about a setting now as nurseries change.

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

I would certainly read the Ofsted reports but I wouldn't put much weight at all on the difference between outstanding vs good in isolation - it could be something tiny that tips the balance between the two ratings and many things that they rate on aren't the kind of things which will have a big influence on your day-to-day experience.

[Daisies123]

I had a choice of two and went with the larger more 'corporate' one on gut feeling rather than the smaller one I thought would be the better one before I viewed them!

Although it's larger there are more rooms so the children aren't in that big a group. They build up good relationships with their key workers.

What put me off the smaller one was how disorganised the office was (suspected this would drive me mad) and a lack of resilience in terms of staff as there were so few staff as it was small (they were having to get an office person into the baby room every time a nappy needed changing). I also disliked the catering arrangements at the small one - bought in from local school rather than prepared on site.

Definitely go with gut feeling. OFSTED isn't everything