Have you seen your child's nursery room? Do you go in the room at pick up? Lack of transparency is worrying me.

[Paradisaeidae]

DC started at nursery last year. As it was still high covid our visit was after hours so no interactions to see between staff and children and it was dark so no view of the outside area.

DC settled in slowly and I was worried about lack of info about his day. We asked about these things and were invited to look at the room again, but again, it was after hours.

He's now moved to the next age group room. We've not been invited to look at it. I've mentioned this and still not been shown it even after hours. It's a higher ratio and a bigger busier room. DC is hesitant about it.

The layout of the nursery you can't do even a casual peep into the playground or the nursery rooms. Which is good from a security point of view but with my older child I loved being able to peek at them playing happily before they spotted me. It really helped me to see them happily. playing.

Communication still not great either.

I'm just left with this niggly anxiety/concern. I've worked in early years myself and I think the lack of transparency and minimal communication - its just not filling me with confidence.

Would other parents feel the same?
And are other nurseries still doing this??

I think it's weird. We moved recently and my son started a new preschool in September. I had a tour of the preschool with DS. For the first 3 or so sessions I dropped him off and collected him inside the nursery. After that I dropped and picked off at the door like the other parents.

I would be pretty unimpressed with them not addressing your concerns.

We pick up and collect outside but I know what the nursery looks like from when my son went into it. I would be asking the nursery manager to have video tours of the rooms put onto whatever way you communicate with them (if there’s a platform) .

Viewed the nursery last March after all the children had gone home. Signed our daughter up for a place. She started in July last year and since that initial viewing in March, we haven't been in since. Drop off and collection is done at the gate and to be honest, that works so much better 😊

My son starts preschool next week, he will have just turned 3.
We had a visit on Monday where we went in when all the children were there. I got to see it all happening and he went and played with the other children at the different stations. It has made me feel much better about his start next week so I completely get what you are saying.

We're still not allowed in. It's we have DC1 in the preschool room, so we were in the baby room with her pre covid.

DC2 has been in the baby room since May. We were allowed in for settling. Pickups and drop offs all still at the door. We can see into the preschool room so that's good but not the baby room. We still get lots of chat from the staff at pickup though, and detail about her day.

We had a small concern about DC1 at her nursery school setting and spoke to her daycare nursery about it, so we had a meeting with the owner and her keyworker in an unused room.

Basically, we would prefer to be able to get in, but they've worked hard to ensure the relationships with parents are as close to normal as possible. I wouldn't be happy in your shoes, mainly because they're not working with you.

My DS's nursery is still shut to parents but it is generally good at communication, which is reassuring. They have an app which tells us exactly what children have eaten, when they slept etc and are good about updating this. They also send out photos of all the children and an update on their day at the end of every day. All the staff seem to know my DS and they do a short handover each evening where they tell me about his day plus any concerns. They are also good at calling if there is anything significant wrong. They do focus weeks where they give a general report on his progress and a more thorough report every three months or so. I'd push for better communication from your nursery in the first instance.

I don't like that we can't go inside and I don't think it's generally a good policy for nurseries to be so closed off to the outside world from a safeguarding perspective. If something was wrong, it would be much more difficult for parents or anyone else to know. I think covid is being used as an excuse now. My DS is ill all the time with things he's caught at nursery and most of the staff have had covid. I don't think the policy of shutting parents out is protecting anyone and seems excessive compared to how open everything else is. I suspect they just like not having parents wandering around. I'd be happy with going in occasionally to see the room and keeping outside pick-ups in general if that works better for them.

@Chessie678 I'd personally love to have parents in again, I find it so much easier to talk inside than being stood outside in the cold and with a queue forming. We're restricted by government guidelines, in Scotland anyway.

We're in England.

The door you wait at inside just has a little glass panel, and even that's not a clear view of the room.

They use an app but there's no food, naps, etc on it. Every once in a while they put the odd photo on, but it can go a month without even one photo.

I'm just really unhappy and last night dc was saying again they didn't want to go.

I feel I'm going to have to email AGAIN but it feels a bit pointless. They didn't follow up on each point I emailed about last time so I can't see anything changing.

I think I need to decide if I want to keep the same setting or not. My ex seems reluctant to move settings but dc is their first child and they've nothing to compare it to, and no background in early years, whereas for me it's just not sitting well.