Does your DC'S nursery do trips? What happens to the babies?

[evenhope]

I've just been told that our nursery is organising a day trip to a farm in a couple of weeks. The letter tells us that babies can only go if a parent also goes, and there will be a charge of £9 for the parent!

We haven't been at nursery long so I wondered if this was normal practice? It won't affect us this year because ATM she doesn't go on Fridays but in a couple of months she'll be full time.

I pay for her to go to nursery (£30 a day) so that I can go to work. I have to take time off every time she is ill. Why on earth would I want to take another day off to either visit a farm or have to stay at home with her because the nursery is closed? They haven't explained either if they would still charge us for this closed day. (I suppose it's not so bad if they aren't also charging for the day).

DD's nursery used to do trips - the top two rooms only, 2.2yos upwards, not the babies or the tiny toddlers. They stopped doing it a couple of years ago (just as DD went into the right age group!) and now do a 'fun week' at nursery instead, when they get a bouncy castle in and suchlike.

I work in a pre-school so rules may be different, however we have 80 children on our books and 11 staff and we go on a visit to a farm in the summer months. The staff can only take 1 child each outside the premises, therefore 69 children need to be acommpanied by a parent or a carer. This may seem harsh but the reality is that the pre-school cannot compromise the ratios for outside visits, because we would be liable if there was an incident. The risks are higher when outside the premises. Obviously in a pre-school, many parents do not work anyway so it isn't usually a problem and the staff do give priority to working parents who can't get time off. Most of the parents needing to use a nursery are probably working which would make a farm visit very difficult to arrange, I imagine.

I don't have a problem with why they need parents to go- it's expecting parents who are paying to have their baby looked after because they go to work to take time off for a trip (whether to go or not).

Looks like I didn't make it clear- rereading my OP. The nursery will be closed for the day, for anyone not going on the trip. So basically the parents of the 10 babies in the baby room all have to take the day off and/or pay £9 for the privilege of going to a farm.. (not the way I want to spend my precious Annual Leave with a child who isn't over-interested in animals yet)

In the nursery I use the baby room dont go on trips, but the baby room remains open. I dont think it would be fair to close the nursery for everyone if they cant go on the trip. Will they be refunding your fee for that day

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My nursery is same as others - babies don't go on trips. I'd be very cross if they took them and wanted me to pay for the privilege of taking the day off work.

So if you do go, do you have to pay £30 for the day as well?
Even though they won't be looking after her because you'll be there.

DD's old nursery did this too.

Trip to the zoo for some kind of 'Santa Special' that cost £12. Nursery shut for the day. So I had to pay for the day it was shut and for the trip which I thought was very unfair.

My DDs nursery is taking the children including babies to a farm park in June. Parents/grandparents can go too if they want but if not then the babies can go on their own (well with the nursery staff!).

Those babies not going on the trip can stay in nursery, they will have staff staying behind to look after them.

That seems fair to me - I would be cross in your situation because 1, I don't want to take time off work to go to the farm with my DD, I do that sort of thing as a family in my own time. And 2, I can't take any more leave anyway!

Talk to the nursery manager and ask them if they can organise an alternative plan before the trip. There must be other parents that don't want/can't go.

Thanks for all these responses. It's always useful to know what other nurseries do, and that I'm not BU in being annoyed about it.