Lack of info from nursery

[joeylo]

My son is nearly two and has been attending nursery for nearly 6 months. The nursery seems nice (although not seen much of it due to joining in covid), has lovely outdoor space and staff seem friendly. My son also always seems happy when he go in the morning and returns at lunch. However the feedback in regards to milestones/development is non existent (we have no app, no parents evening, no reports) - the general comms seems very shoddy. My question is should I let this go as ultimate my boy seems very happy there or is this borderline negligent and I should move him??! Thoughts much appreciated

Have you asked about his development?

Yes. I just get vague answers that he is on track- no specifics and a sort of no news is good news approach

The only legal requirement for assessing and reporting in the EYFS for nurseries is the 2 year which he will have when he is 2

Ask for a meeting!
I work in a nursery myself and you have every right to ask to meet with your child’s key person in relation to their development and how they’re getting On at nursery.
You can also request at any time, to see your child’s learning journey. Even if they don’t have an app they will be observing him on paper and you can ask at anytime to see :)

What is it you want to know ?
They've reassured you he is 'on track' and that they have no concerns about his development.
He isn't even 2 yet.
If there is something specific you want to know, I think you need to ask them.

Don’t ask for a meeting, it’s not essential
Just ring and ask for an update or better still email so they can reply when it’s convenient for them

They may have paper work such as a learning journal but because of Covid this won't be being passed from the nursery to you at the moment. A lot of nurseries are using online systems now instead.

Have you asked them if they do a journal/learning tracker of some sort?

I wouldn't worry about it. They would contact you if they have concerns. They have told you he is doing well. Just let him enjoy his day/session of play. I really don't believe that 2 year olds need to be 'tested' by nurseries anyway.

We got a written report from our nursery a few months ago when DD was probably about 17 months. It broke down how she was doing and gave some tips on how to develop areas further (no concerns and it's all stuff we are doing like reading books and singing songs to help with speech/vocabulary).

They said we could arrange a call if we wanted to discuss but we didn't feel it necessary as she was meeting all her milestones.

If you have concerns or just want to check all is OK, ask them for a call?

I think we only get a report once a year or so, so he hasn't been there long enough for that to be an issue. If they had concerns about his development, I'm sure they'd raise them with you, but you can always ask if you have specific concerns. There are no parent's evenings in nursery. Thank god! There's enough of a pain in school.

We do have an app, but I mainly only use it to look at photos and see what they are doing (only about 1 posted a week). There isn't much on there noted about development, and that's fine, because I'm not really interested. He's having fun and is happy and doing fine, and that's really all I need to know.

Do they not use tapestry or anything?

We usually get termly updates and a report. It included a lot of information about development.

That’s in addition to extra photos and our new nursery also had a Facebook page for parents.

Hi OP, this sounds quite similar to our nursery. The Comms are not great and they don’t offer any parent apps or send photo updates - it’s just a slightly frantic update on how many bowel movements and what they ate/played with at the end of the day for collection. But we like it otherwise (outside space like yours is a major plus), and more importantly, DC enjoys the time there.

You have to be happy though - you are paying for it. Email them and let them know you would like more information. As PPs said, you will get a 2 year report soon, and if anything was amiss they’d likely (hopefully) tell you. Yes we are in a pandemic, but it’s been over a year now, and early years is important.

Most setting are cutting down on the amount of face to face contact they are doing because of covid. Is there any thing you are concerned about? The EYFS development matters profile is changing and it is far wider in terms of assessing children's development. If he is happy and you have no concerns then happy days

We do a day to day update diary for under twos and have tapestry for development. If they had concerns there is a good chance they would have been in touch. I’d send an email and see if they can give you an update on his EYFS tracker and ask how he’s doing generally.

Thanks so much for everyone's response. I have been more assertive in asking the nursery and accepted they will never be the best in that area but most important he's happy x

Yeah, not sure I’d be too happy with that either OP. Ours has an app and every nappy change/cream application/food/drink gets loaded on there along with pictures if he’s doing something especially cute like making a Mother’s Day card or w/e. There’s usually a comment such as ‘we’ve been playing with X, Y or Z today and he enjoyed dancing’ he’s less than 1 though so not much to report from an education perspective but I’d expect that to come as he grows certainly.

Glad you’re going to ask!