Am I expecting too much? Observations, feedback + progress

29 replies

owitney · 12/09/2023 12:29

We have two children, but we have DS 2.5 year old. In January we moved location as our eldest starts school. We moved nursery but with the same chain. We didn't start off well and felt we are effectively paying for babysitting and nothing else. This got better in the Spring but has progressively got worse and I don't know if its just me expecting too much.

3 days a week - 8am-5pm.

We are potty training our son who does well at home, rarely accidents, doesn't wet the bed overnight (we get him up at 11pm for a night wee). Nursery the past 3 weeks our DS has a minimum of 2 accidents, normally 3 or 4 each day. I have raised this with them a few times, that he needs to be checked if its happening and perhaps at nursery have scheduled toilet breaks if hes getting too distracted.

The observations are rare. One mid April, one end of May, one beginning of June, one end of July. So 4 in 6 months.

We do not get photos or personal daily updates. When we pick up we get a quick chat of who he played with and again, a generic what the class did. We do not get any take home (paintings or drawings) items.

We have had one parents evening since we joined which was just a how is he settling.

At the moment we are working on counting at home as DS keeps forgetting 4 and 5. We have asked nursery to encourage counting for any activities. This was 3 weeks ago and we haven't heard anything since.

Am I just expecting too much from the nursery? I am reading online and getting really mixed views. Some saying that observations and pictures take too much time, and DS is happy there, he likes the staff and other children and has no issue going to nursery, but I am feeling let down.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Itsmychristmasdress · 03/11/2023 23:08

Counting is happening though op through the activities they have listed above. Do you expect them to just repeat 1 2 3 4 ..... because that's not how children learn.
You clearly don't trust the staff so you should take him out.
They can't give you such specific information every day. I think your expectations vare to high and you are treating nursery like its formal education like reception.

onlyoneoftheregimentinstep · 03/11/2023 23:21

owitney · 12/09/2023 15:42

Thanks caban. I should have made it clear what I am really expecting.

What I am expecting is that what we are trying to do at home, that nursery is also doing within their setting. So at the moment it is numbers and counting and potty training. I don't expect the nursery to necessarily be doing everything we do at home, but I would expect some learning over 3 full days and not regress with potty training so easily/frequently and work with us on what is going wrong. The only response we are getting is "he is getting distracted" and no plan of what we are gong to do.

Daily photos and observations are not what we are after. I never said this. Our previous nursery would do one observation every fortnight, and we were expecting similar. We would get one or two pictures a week of our child doing an activity (over the 3 days), we now get zero. We would have termly parent evening with his key worker, we have not had one yet (since joining in January), only a settling in meeting with the room leader.

For reference the nursery costs £95/day.

Genuinely, are we really asking for too much?

Edited

This is completely back to front. Surely you should be reinforcing the learning that Nursery are providing - it's not your job to tell them what to teach.

Alexahelp · 04/11/2023 13:49

You’ve got totally unrealistic expectations of what a 2.5yr old gets out of nursery - there’s a reason funded hours kick in from 3, before then it is a gradual introduction to social settings and to be blunt, it’s care for your child, with very little academics. There is a noticeable difference in what they do from 3 which is much more structured.

That said make sure you’re clear with your child’s key worker what they need as they should definitely be getting help with toileting. If your nursery has been struggling with permanent staff it is sadly a symptom of the crisis in childcare staff - focus on whether they are happy, seem cared for and enjoy going in each day. If they don’t then you do have an issue.

Mysterian · 04/11/2023 14:11

One permanent member of staff in the room? That's not good. The nursery on the whole doesn't sound good. Not terrible, but not good. That's just how nurseries are at the moment.

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread