Has anyone got recent experience with the Barkantine Community Nursery please, either the baby room or the family room? There are hardly any reviews online, and the ones I found are from 2008-2013.
I visited the nursery today and mostly liked it. It has a cosy, homely feel and the staff seemed friendly - even the cleaner chatted to me and explained how often toys and cushions are cleaned, etc ... lol I've been a bit OCD with cleanliness since my little one started crawling and now toddling around and touching everywhere and putting everything in his mouth. I can share other things that I liked about the nursery if anyone is interested but I didn't want to write too long a post.
The two most recent Ofsted reviews are Good and Outstanding, which is great, but they are from 2012. So nothing recent there either.
The main thing that concerns me I guess the fact that children 2-5 years old are all together in the same room. They have two "family rooms" they call them upstairs for children 2-5 yrs old.
Why do other nurseries not do it this way, there must be a good reason? I'm worried a bigger and more active 4 year old might knock over my ds while running around - kids will be kids after all and it's none of their fault. I don't know if that's an actual concern or am I being just too protective? Anyone sent their lo to a mixed age room/nursery?
Also another aspect of having children of different ages in the same room - activities and learning. Surely a 2 yr old needs different games to help them learn than a 4 year old? How can they cater for everyone needs and interest?
And how do you determine the staff to children ratio in a mixed age room?
I didn't want this to sound as a negative post. Quite on the contrary, I liked the nursery, it's just this one aspect that I'm unsure about and that's why I wanted to hear if other people have any relevant experience.
Thanks a lot!