Nursery drop off

[Retrovibe89]

Just want a bit of reassurance if this is normal or if my nursery could be doing something different to help young toddlers settle.
My DD is 17 months and has been in nursery for the last 3 weeks as I am a key worker and could no longer manage childcare around work. It took her a while to settle back in (different room/staff to what she was used to before lockdown) but we finally got to the point she would happily walk in. Today they are obviously open for more children but their drop off procedure is that they have given me a 10 minute slot where I must drop her off (annoying but I can work with it), and a member of staff was stood outside the building to take her and her bag into the room. Previously I was allowed in the lobby to do handover but not into the room. My issue is that my dd does not know this staff member and therefore screamed and screamed when I handed her over. It was horrible. I got back in the car and burst into tears. Is this a normal procedure across nurseries now they have reopened?

It doesn't sound particularly well managed. They will get used to it, she'll know tomorrow that this new member of staff simply takes her to her friends. She didn't know that today. I do think it would have been better if they'd sent out a familiar member of staff though, but maybe that wasn't possible.

I suspect it'll be similar in lots of places. Ours is still closed to all (NI so no info yet), but before lockdown we had to drop off and collect at the door and whoever was free would bring them in or out. We didn't have the ten minute slot but otherwise it was as you describe.

DD didn't love it but I'm sure as soon as she got to her usual room with the usual staff it was fine.

Yep same drop off procedure here, although without the 10 minute slot. DC didn't like being dropped off with people he knew before lock down, I can't see it going well and will not be sending them back yet.

Thanks all. I’ve not been overly happy with her nursery for a while (way before lockdown) for little things so just wondered if this was normal or not 😊 will see how the next few days go

Yes it's normal, parents shouldn't be going in to the building or getting too close to staff.

They are doing what's safe for so the children and staff in the nursery. It's far from ideal but they are following the guidelines.

I think nurseries need to be cut a little slack here. These are trying times for all, and they are no doubt trying their best. With the increase in numbers it is now not as safe for parents to enter the building as it will have been during lockdown. Unfortunately most nurseries will be having to do similar. It is a shame they didn’t have a staff member from her room available though tbh

Personally I don’t see what’s changed from last week to this week?
She had to remove her shoes before going in as they are ‘outside shoes’ how are outside shoes different to outside clothes? If it’s that much of an issue why not disinfect shoes when they get there?
I’m a bit dubious about how not getting close to staff members makes much difference when I’m close to dd and they get close to her too in all honesty.

The guidance has changed from today. A lot of settings have more children attending from today too.
Shoes are different to clothes as they are continuously touching the floor do more likely to be contaminated.
I'm sure the setting are doing their best to keep everyone safe.

'Personally I don’t see what’s changed from last week to this week?'

Numbers are up. More children are going back now.

The shoes thing makes sense, but just generally, not in the context of Coronavirus. It's good to take shoes off in an environment where children are crawling round on the floor.

Government guidance was released last Sunday so lots of settings are tightening up procedures. With more children and parents attending now staff deserve to be kept as safe as possible at work.

Adult to adult transmission seems much more common/likely than child to adult which is why the guidance emphasises keeping parents at a distance and distancing between staff.

And agree - shoes off is normal hygiene.

I think I read in other countries they weren't taking children who couldn't be handed over without fuss.

Primary Schools who have been open for key worker children will look very different once the eligible Year groups are back as more children will be in and Government guidance has been published to tell what schools/nurseries should be doing.

There are more children attending therefore the risk is higher, more contacts for the children and staff. There is little evidence we children catching the virus although we don’t know about transmission, so of course adult to adult contact is more risky. This isn’t nursery staff being difficult any more than shop assistants etc, this is a horrible disease and thing shave to be different for now at least

The nursery my Ds goes to was going to do this, and I had the same concerns as you, he loves his key worker and the adults he knows, but he would have got really distressed if someone he didn’t know was to take him in.

Thankfully, the nursery is saying to just go by our contracted hours, and they’ve set up a pathway to wait with your child at safe distance until you’re called to the gate, then a familiar member of staff meets the child there. The parents don’t go inside either, only those of the very young ones. It’s not too bad though, as the parents drop their kids off at all different times so not to much in the way of chaos.

We're no longer allowed inside my DD's nursery. Given reduced numbers, they still may have staff furloughed so are working with reduced staffing. I think you have to accept that things will be different and this will be the new normal for the forseeable.

We drop off outside their group room and they now have boxes for their stuff right outside instead of in the cloakroom. Parents have to wear masks when inside the building and there's a disinfectant dispenser outside the main entrance that you have to use. However, all of ours are back full time. We're abroad.