Out of control

[Fandabydosey]

I am new here. I wanted some support/advice. There is a group of about 4 children in the nursery I work in. Their behaviour is making me want to leave my job. They are out of control and I feel sick at the thought of going to work. I can't sleep and I am grumpy with my own children. I have never known behaviour like it. These children are 4 years old. I have been punched, sworn at, and spat at to name a few behaviours. Every behaviour system has not worked so far. Encouraging positive behaviour is not working. I am thoroughly miserable in my job because of 4 children. I am actually considering getting signed off sick until they go to school. I feel totally pathetic allowing my job to get to me like this but I really care about the children in my care. I don't know what to do. The parents shrug off the feed back we give or say their child is an angel and it's not their child it's other children's influence. I give 100% to my job I prepare stuff for the children in my own time and buy resources from my wages. I get minimum wage to be treated like dirt. This is starting to make me ill now. Any advice is appreciated xx

I'm sorry for you , this sounds awful. Do you have a boss who is aware of how you feel? Do other staff members feel the same?

You should have a line manager able to support you? You aren’t a one-woman band business.

I don’t know the rights of staff in this situation but Employers have a duty of care to protect staff. You could speak to your manager together as a team at the next team meeting (if all of you tell her what’s happened to you then no individual nursery staff member can be picked on and there’s corroboration). You could keep a log of all the details of the incidents in case you need it. Or fill in the accident book at work. If you are members of the union contact them. But if the answer is to ask the child’s parent to remove them, then the nursery will lose money, so I’d imagine nothing may happen, even though it totally should! Good luck, it’s a horrible position to be on.