Private nursery or a School nursery

[Vinee555]

Hi,
My son is nearly 4 yrs old and he goes to a school nursery. Prior to going here, he used to go to a private nursery since he was 10 months old until he turned 3.
I feel like there is hardly any communication from his nursery. When he joined the school.nursery they used to send a weekly newsletter so we knew what he was going to learn but they have stopped the newsletter so we are clueless about what he is doing there. Also, there is no school app now, they have shut it down most recently.
My son talks very less about what he did there and he mostly talks about playing with cars. What is he expected to learn at this stage at the nursery? He will.not to go to school until next year since he was born in September.
When I talk to the nursery staff; they say let him do some free play and don't bother too much what he is learning and what he is not. However, as a parent I believe we should be communicated about how he progressing there atleast once in a while, but I always recieve the same usual response that don't stress about his progress. Should I accept this response by his nursery?

Also, when my son went to the private nursery, things were different, I used to meet with the Manager atleast once in every six months. She used to tell me how my son is progressing and where he needs an improvement and those meetings used to work.

So, do I need to be stressed about it or I should get used to of this approach by nursery since this is how things works at Schools?

Thanks so much for reading this long post😊

In my experience this is what schools are like. If you directly ask for feedback they'll probably tell you, but they don't have time or staff to do a regular update like a private nursery does.

That said, a four year old doesn't 'require improvement' in anything except playing.

He's meant to be playing. But yes, you're not going to get that level of update from a school nursery.

I think that’s what schools are like. As with the older ones you should get a parents evening but it’s not going to be daily updates. Ours does have an app now, they didn’t when my now 8YO was in the nursery, but it doesn’t get posted on a lot and what they do post is quite general ‘the class walked to the park to hunt for minibeasts’ and your kid may or may not be in the pictures. The school does have a weekly newsletter and there will be one item per year group including nursery. However, we do get sent the curriculum and time table termly so we know what they’re learning.

Adding to the chorus that this is.quite typical. Schools usually tell you if there is a problem, so no news is good news. You should be getting some feedback through parents' evenings or reports though - we get 2 parents' evenings and 1 report each year. The parents' evenings were generally quite broad with 1 or 2 things to work on.

Removing the app is a bit of a shame, but I believe it's because the focus has shifted to being in the moment with the children and not spending ages documenting. I found the app hit and miss anyway. My DS's teacher never put anything 1:1 or small group on for him, so it was just whole class pictures e.g. doing PE. A friend in the other class got regular personalised posts. The whole class pictures were nice for conversation as a prompt to DS 'oh I see you did dancing in PE...'

So similar situation to you OP in that my son went to a private nursery until he turned 2 and then moved to a school nursery/preschool which takes from age 2. He’s now just turned 3 and he is absolutely loving it there and doing so well, but it is definitely miles apart from the private nursery. As others have said, I think this is just what school nurseries are like. The handovers and communication is very different, I often don’t get much info at the end of the day, and if I ask they sometimes can’t tell me as it’ll be someone who hasn’t been with him that day, whereas at the private nursery it was very detailed. You should get updates about him but I’d say nowhere near as often or as detailed as the private nursery, or at least that’s what I’ve experienced.

In terms of updates, we get a photo dump on the app once a month and we don’t get daily or weekly photos or updates on there. We get half-termly newsletters from the manager which tell us what the children have been doing and learning. There is a parents evening once a year (or maybe twice a year I can’t remember) where we go and chat to his key worker about how he’s doing.

They definitely do some learning there though. DS is 3 so I don’t expect a lot, if anything really, but on the last year he’s come home counting to 10, counts very very basically on his fingers, recognises some letters, is very good at his colours and such. Once we saw they were doing that it was something we built on at home. He does have a reading record folder and he chooses a different library book every few weeks and we read it to him, and then we make notes about his reactions and any favourite bits in the record book, and then nursery know what to talk to him about when they read the book with him. It’s not for him reading but more I think for them to encourage him being read to at home.

This is normal in a school. Get used to it, because as he goes through his schooling, they won’t have time to give you daily updates on what he’s doing.

Thanks Mum taking the time to reply.
Tbh, I am not looking for the teachers to do a one on one every now and then about my child's learning but there should be some sort of communication atleast once in a while.

An example I went to pick up my son's 6 monthly report and I was simply handed the report and upon asking just 2 questions teacher's response was I have to see other people as well. They were more intrested in new people who were also there for the Open Day.

There have no parents evening as such I believe at this stage of School.

Anyway, if this seem to be a practice of the School then you can't do much I guess because in some of the other Schools that's definitely not the case😊

I teach a bit at a school nursery. The communication isn’t great. We send home a weekly newsletter with song/rhyme of the week, maths focus etc and any special days. (Like dress like a pirate.) There are termly reports- just an update on how they play etc, and a follow up parent teacher meeting. Teachers are always available for a short door chat or to arrange to meet too. Then there is the weekly app update which is a lot of photos of the learning/activities and play that week. The staff where I work are hard-working and provide lovely activities and enhancements to each week for the children.

I'm surprised as our school nursery has a lot of visible learning. We have the weekly newsletter, and work comes home like the caterpillar life cycle each kid had created, and we have parents evenings. I can also see what my daughter has been learning because she has been saying a bit of phonics to me and identifying shapes in everyday objects, telling me basic adding sums and long lists of positioning language that must have been some kind of parroting of a lesson earlier.

I can’t believe how different these responses are from my experience @Vinee555 😳

My 4 year old goes to a school nursery. We have an app and usually get a post at least a few times a week with updates on activities that DS has been doing. His key worker greets us daily and is always happy to discuss anything or answer any questions. Whoever does handover at the end of the day gives us a quick rundown of his day.
As well as his personal posts we get weekly posts about their Makaton words that week and any special days etc that are on.

He has a “special book” which is kept up to date by staff with pictures of activities, tracking sheets to show ‘learning targets’ for things like basic literacy, numeracy, and life skills.

Once every 3 months we get a fully written report (usually 2 sides of A4) detailing how DS is doing in each area and what they will be working on over the next 3 months. They also ask if there’s anything specific that we would like to be in place as a learning target and they ask DS what he would like to learn about.
We are invited at this stage to meet with his key worker to discuss the report.

I can also request a meeting with her and/or the manager at any time!

Our local private nursery gives no daily updates and just holds 2 parents nights each year.