Inset Days at Private Nursery

[Kathryne24]

Hi all, just looking for some opinions on a private nursery closing for 4 inset days per year. My child is in a private nursery full time and I pay £2K a month. I simply cannot afford to pay double childcare on those training. I have another child who is at school and I also have to cover her holidays with my annual leave so taking holiday is not an option. I don’t have any family around to help with childcare. I just feel like I am constantly forking out money on childcare that’s super extortionate.
I understand that those days help the staff with training to be better equipped to support my child but at this cost should the staff not be already at the good level of supporting them anyway? Can they not do the training in groups to keep the nursery still open? Thank you!!!

Do you claim funding? The funding doesn't cover inset days.

If they did the training in shifts the nursery would have to pay for two sets of training etc

you are entitled to unpaid carers leave which could be an option to cover the four days? Not ideal but a potential solution

schools also tend to have inset days so it’s a perennial issue

I hated this when DS was small, but ultimately your choices are deal with it, or change nursery. I'm assuming it's worked into your contract - it was in mine.

It's good for the teams to be able to train together and get in some bonding time. The same will happen in schools, including private schools. It's inconvenient for us as parents to deal with, but it's just one of those things.

Use a week's parental leave for your annual holiday to give you more annual leave for these days.

I’ve never had that with private nursery, both that I’ve used have only closed at Christmas. I would go to a different nursery.

If the nursery didn't close for training, the staff would have to do it in the evenings and as most nursery's are open til 6pm it makes for a late evening. Training such as first aid and Safeguarding are better done when staff are not tired and feeling grumpy/taken advantage of (the nursery's I worked for didn't pay you for evening training.)

I didn’t know nurseries did 4 days Inset. They probably don’t all do that-maybe find one that doesn’t.

Certain aspects of training need to be done annually - safeguarding for one. I, for one, would be grateful that the people responsible for looking after my child are maintaining and improving their skills through training.