Is this my sons fault or nursery’s fault?

[Mummymummymummyy]

I just had an email from my 4years old pre school saying there was an incident today and I need to sign the form when he next comes in- as they didn’t mention at pick up. The incident is that he opened the fire door which leads to the nursery main door which opens onto a busy road. The tone of the email is all about how bad it is my son did this and how shocked they all were. It says they they had a talk with him about safety and how bad it is to open the door, and can I also talk to him. I’m glad they took it seriously and mentioned it, but I’m kind of annoyed and wondering if I should be. Surely the issue is that a nursery isn’t properly child proof, if a door can be opened by a child. It’s not like I have taught him to open doors and although of course I will talk to him about it- surely they themselves need to address this. a precious nursery he went to had buttons up high to press to open doors, and buzzers etc.

am I unreasonable to be annoyed?

Fire doors can't be opened from the outside and if all your doors need a code to allow them to be opened I wouldn't rate the chances of people getting out in a fire.

Not every type of door, just fire doors 🤷🏻‍♀️
Ffs!

We are all capable of inputting a code and opening the door in the event of a fire, don’t worry!

Not if you were unconscious... they are usually designed so anyone can open them in case of emergency.

Unless they are actually on a system which automatically unlocks if the fire alarm is triggered?

You've evidently never been in that situation...

Yes - this is what I was wondering…
Maybe the nursery ratios are too high?

I think you are doing this deliberately now. Surely you have come across a fire door. Surely you know that someone being able to blindly (because of smoke) push a large bar to get through a door is better than someone having to enter a code in a fire. In a fire a child or a visitor to the nursery may have to open the door. If your nursery has no fire doors that can be opened without a code then that is a major problem.

It’s concerning that you work in a nursery unless it’s at a very junior level; you have no clue about fire regulations.
A fire door that needs a key code would have the place closed down.

Personally there’s never been a fire whilst I have been there but there was in the past and everyone got out safely and quickly. We do drills every term and again, everyone is always out in a timely manor.

Im not sure why everyone is focusing on my fire door and not the fact a child nearly got out an (unrelated) unsecured door and don’t see the risk in that? The child is 4 and has only just started to gain any sort of impulse control and it won’t be fully developed until 10+. The nursery needs to be putting measures into place to make sure this doesn’t happen again and not just blaming the child.

Agree! Plus should the nursery themselves not have taught the kids emergency procedures and firedoors? I’m pretty sure my kids would have been able to follow instructions at 4!

I wonder what else is a potential safeguarding issue in the nursery.

We had an incident like this at a summer holiday sports camp when my GS was this age. I honestly don't see how they can blame him for exposing their deficiencies, which is the line that my daughter took when they tried to blame my GS.

I’m sure he was just curious about it and followed his instincts to explore as four year olds often do.

The staff do have to be stern about fire doors for safe guarding purposes obviously. And fire doors are always a tricky dilemma. They have to be easy to push open and that's why staff should make sure the children don’t open them.

The question I would ask is whether or not your son had already had a few lessons on fire doors and the rules around their use. Was the lesson adequate ? How do they ensure that each child has understood that a fire door is never used unless as a means of escape in an emergency. There is lots of terminology a child needs to understand and lots of scenarios to be talked about before the staff can know and be sure the child fully understands not to open the door. If he hasn’t had those lessons and talks and explanations then they can’t blame him for being curious as it’s his inherent goal in life at four years old, to satisfy his curiosity. That’s how he learns.

The other question to ask is whether or not any other adult uses that fire door…for other purposes. If they do, then that’s not a good example to the children unless it has been fully explained to them, maybe several times, why it is necessary to break the rule.

It also needs to be said that some four year olds need lots of reminders about the rules of the nursery room/classroom. For some, one talk isn’t enough, they need reminders, depending on the child.
It’s not good enough to bark orders at them and expect them to understand with any certainty.

So the building is essentially left unlocked overnight, every night? Most organisations would not tolerate this, which is why fire doors can generally only be opened from the inside.

Straight to Ofsted. This could have been catastrophic. Your son should not have been unsupervised or able to do this

I've worked in a couple of nurseries, visited a few others for part of another role. All fire doors I have ever seen in those settings lead to a playground with a gate locked with a high bolt that children can't reach. The nursery haven't effectively risk assessed if a child can escape so easily.

Without knowing if your son has special needs its likely a little from column a and a little from column b

The children should be supervised but in a school nursery it's often only 2 staff and they can't be everywhere at once
Not opening doors and leaving is something most 4 year old know not to do and can follow those rules

My son did escape school as a 7 year old because doors that should have been closed were propped open.
The school were very apologetic but only because he's SN and part of their resource unit and unable to comply

I would ask what will be put in place if anything to prevent a repeat of this

Sorry if I've missed this, but what were the children in his class told bout the fire door? Were they told that under no circumstances should they open it unless there was an actual emergency?

“he opened the fire door which leads to the nursery main door which opens onto a busy road”

That he opened the fire door is one thing - but surely the nursery main door can’t simply be opened by a child, nor indeed from outside? At my DD’s nursery, the door onto the street has a buzzer one side so parents are buzzed in, and a (high) thing to press in order to get out, so no child would be able to do it.

They missed an opportunity to explain to the children about emergencies and fire doors in a simplified form. He wasn't bad - the staff should have known it could be opened by a child. If they didn't they haven't done a correct risk assessment. A child opening it needs an explanation about what it is there for, and why no-one should open it unless told by a grown up. Seriously needs risk assessed now your son has identified it and what have they done about it.

I'm not sure why people think he was on his own. Presumably he opened the door in the room which would have got him as far as the main nursery door So I would assume there were staff there which is why they noticed but children don't generally have 1:1 in nursery.
I'm not surprised he could open it and it would have been drilled in to the children not to touch the door.
I have worked in plenty of nurseries and the children always know that the doors were only for adults to open.

If this is really the case then your building does not meet building regulations. It is very unlikely this set up passed a fire risk assessment.

Fire exit route doors must be free of devices which could restrict exit if it fails or if it is inoperable to all occupants. Getting out of an exit door in a fire is completely different to getting out in a fire drill. If the corridor is filled with smoke, it would be incredibly difficult to enter a code into a keypad.

There must be an alternative fire exit that is usable

You can’t lock a fire door but the push bar is usually waist high for an adult. You have to push down and forwards at the same time iyswim. Only way I can think a 4 year old can open it is by swinging on it and if that happened who was supervising? Surely they’d have noticed a 4 year old playing with an external door.

It's a fire door. It needs to be unlocked.

Presumably there have been quite a number of children at the nursery for the time it has been running but no other child has opened the fire door. It clearly isn't a significant danger if no other children are doing this but it is an incident and it needs addressing ie you and the nursery explaining to your son the dangers of opening doors that are kept closed and increased supervision of your son until it's proven he's not trying to open it again.

You said it opened up to where the nursery main door is. It didn't open on to the road. Is the main door locked? Nursery main doors usually are but it's a bit concerning a fire door doesn't get everyone outside without another (possibly locked?) door to get through.

This is not an astronomical cost. It’s a relatively small outlay for a one door.

The alternative is to fit an alarm on the door. It won’t stop them being opened but it will deter them a second time.

I’d be furious if. He is a boy in ‘nursery’. Is there a WhatsApp group for all the parents/carers? They are the professional adults . I’d suggest looking at the Ofstead report ( which you are also entitled to add to as feedback) and when you reply to them, question whether children are safe within that nursery.
Let us know how you get on.