Mixed age rooms?

[SeaWeeding]

Am I over reacting to be worried about sending my 2 year old to a mixed age nursery?

DD has never been in a formal care setting before, but due to a change in work schedules, we need to look at sending her to nursery 2 days per week. We visited the (only) private nursery near our home and I was surprised to learn all of the children aged 2-5 are in one room.

AIBU to worry about this? There are around 45 kids each session and I am so worried about her being swallowed up by the large crowds of older children. DH thinks she will be fine.

They will probably do a lot of activities in groups with their peers, I wouldn’t be particularly worried.

I’ve not come across that mixed a room before , can’t imagine there will be any 5 year olds at all… so I’d rule that age group out (unless you are abroad??)
there will be more staff too as the ratio for kids to staff is very different from ages 2 vs aged 3.
my DD has always thrived off the older ones, however there is a big diff from being 2 in
nappies needing naps to just starting school?
id look at where will your DC nap? Separate room? The main room would be way too busy and wouldn’t be quiet etc

Unless you are outside the U.K., the oldest really is 4, so in September oldest will be just turning 4

The nursery we used did this, they had a baby room for under 2s then 2 up in the other room. They don't do wrap around so the oldest age would be 4.5. It was a small nursery and they did age appropriate things with the older children but within the same room. The advantage of it being a small nursery was that they could give the children more individual attention. There were never any issues tbh

The nursery we use mixes all ages in the garden, and it seems to work well. During the summer, the 'middle' (2-3) and 'preschool' (3-5) rooms basically never go inside, so it's effectively 2-5 mixed. We're in Scotland, so plenty of five year olds in nursery here (school starting age 4.5-5.5, or up to almost 6 with deferrals).

We viewed it as a positive, that they do get to interact across ages. The staff do set up activities that are primarily aimed at specific age groups, so I don't think their development suffers. Staff do have a specific age group they are focused on, which I think helps avoid children getting overlooked/lost in the mix.

I would look more at how the room is run, is it well divided into different areas for different activities, are the children busy and engaged? I'd also ask them how they manage the age range, do they effectively split up sometimes? How do they ensure the learning is right for each child? (Regardless of the age range, a good nursery should be looking to provide the right materials and ask the right questions/provide the right prompts to naturally extend each child's learning, both in the moment and on a longer timescale.)

I wouldn’t worry about ages but I would worry about staff ratios. Ask about what the ratios are in these mixed rooms

I wouldn’t like that personally, I think 45 in one room is too many and I would be worried about a 2 year old being with the older kids in a busy room all day. It will be very loud and a lot for full days for a child that young. Also how do they tailor activities to each age group and ensure your dd is learning appropriately? I’d look for a nursery with smaller, age appropriate rooms.

My LO is a nursery with two rooms - 0-3 age group and 3-5.

they have sessions each day to mix the two classes also to ensure all the kids and staff know each other across the whole nursery. It’s not a big nursery. (I think 35-40 overall)
but when they mix everyone I think this has really benefited my LO.
the younger ones learn from the older ones and get to experience things they might not if they never mixed (for example my LO has shown a skill in an activity usually reserved for the older room so now it’s been recognised they can nurture this and provide further opportunities) and the older ones have a adopted a real caring and nurturing side which is lovely to see and nice for the little ones to experience the attention from the older ones.
they also separate within the rooms at times so they do have time to just do things their own age group as I’m sure your nursery will do.
overall I wouldn’t worry. But you could ask how they structure the day? And you could ask staff ratios?
I did have similar thoughts to begin but now wouldn’t have it any other way. For us it’s just more learning opportunities, but do what’s best for you x

Op when I managed a nursery, I grouped in ages to work out ratio.
So 1:4 for 2yr olds & 1:8 for 3/4:year olds.
Older children can be moved down into a lower age group but you can't move up. You must work to the youngest child.
We always found mixed age worked well as older were role models for younger ones.
Due to staffing it was sometimes necessary to restrict intake of younger children onto the register.

This was before the government changed it to 1:5 for 2 year olds. I would have maintained 1:4.

I would pay close attention to how happy or distressed my child was at nursery drop off. If the kid is happy then I would be fine

As an early years worker - i prefer mixed age rooms
Im not currently working with that though

I'd be more worried about it being 45 in one room that it being mixed ages.
That is going to be constantly noisy and buy and quite overwhelming for a lot of children.
Also I am wondering where / how the younger ones sleep.

*noisy and busy

Our pre-school (a not for profit but not attached to a school) has 2-4yo, max 30 children per session. They overstaff and it's amazing. DD started when she got funded hours in the term after turning 3 and didn't nap by then but apparently some of them do (no idea how, there's not really a quiet space!) When she was younger she loved the older kids and now she's one of the oldest she loves 'helping' the younger ones. I'll be so sad for her to leave next term, it's been a wonderful place.

I think it has some benefits. Sometimes I imagine expectations might be lower in a room of 2 year olds. She will be exposed to more language etc in a mixed room.

I'm sure she'll be fine as the staff will be experts in settling them. My worry would be that that long in one room, from 2 to school, would be a bit long and she'd outgrow it - but if she's only in two days a week I'm sure it'll be fine.

You could ask them what they do to differentiate by age.

Our nursery moves them to preschool at 3, youngest will be there until she starts school at 5y 2m (in the UK, because UK does not equal England ) and I am a bit worried she'll be bored by the end, but I trust them.

My kids all went to one like this. Realistically there are almost never any 5 year olds as they have gone to school. So the age range is really 2-4. 45 might sound like a lot but it all depends how it is organised, ours had groups within that and usually at least one group was outside at a time. When my kids were 2 and 3 I think they benefitted from being with older children and when they were 4 they enjoyed being nurturing towards the younger ones. They all left confident, happy children.