Nursery worker advice please

[purplecatdog]

Hi all,

I need some advice. I started working in a nursery in sept, before starting i was so incredibly excited and they seemed fantastic. I was put into the preschool room for my stay and play and they seemed lovely. Since starting ive been put into the toddler room, which has the most children in the nursery, and the least staff. Were constantly over ratio, literally every single day. We have no proper resources so creating activities is almost impossible. We have multiple SEN children who are just falling through the cracks bc we cant give them the support they need. And because of this the children just are not getting what they need. Its impossible to get obs done, not to mention i still havent been shown how to do half of the paperwork sides of things. My RL is incredibly passive aggressive with all of us including the children, and is constantly on our backs whilst also never doing anything to help us. We have such poor behaviour with most of the children that we cant support them for, because we dont have the time or staff, which is always creating problems. Also, i get 30m lunch break for working 9.5h 3x days per week. Other people work 8.5h and get one whole hour, with 30m paid by the company. Ive bought this up to my manager multiple times and she keeps saying its because they work 40h per week, which makes no sense to me. 30m is not enough time to eat and reset during the day especially because we get no other breaks. I have been told i can take an hour, but it would mean reducing my hours and taking the whole break unpaid. I just cant do it anymore. Im so incredibly stressed ive been poorly with something or another constantly for the past month. Please tell me im not just being a quitter, this seems unworkable, and i feel im being treated unequally. To top it off i was barred from doing handovers for 2 weeks because a parent lied about me, and complained about the state of their child upon leaving and claimed i told them we no longer do obs on the children. Im also fairly sure this problem happened on a day i wasnt even at work!! I just dont know what to do anymore, i would not DARE send my child to this nursery after working there, thankfully my children are in a different setting.

Oh and despite us losing staff, we are still accepting more children in the new year.

Leave and make sure you report them to the relevant bodies asap

I have already said to my partner i'm going to report them to ofsted when i leave because its not acceptable, i feel terrible for the children. Im unsure of what the other rooms are like but our room at the very least is struggling badly.

Leave, find another job. Some nurseries are just toxic.

Too much work to do, not enough time, not able to support the children with SEN is typical for nursery though I'm afraid! Even when fully staffed, 1:5 isn't really an adequate ratio for toddlers.

No its not at all, it should remain 1:3 until preschool at the very least, they need so much supervision and guidance

Yep you need to leave and report.
Not all nurseries are like this I have worked in lovely ones. Dont let this put you off.

The place isn’t right, at all. Not for the children and not for the staff.
But, you should report now, not when you leave. Otherwise you’re not putting the children first, if you don’t report until after you leave.

Do you have a L3?

It is never acceptable to be working with the wrong ratios. This needs calling out and the circumstances you are working in sound awful - I would definitely leave. No wonder they are struggling for staff!

The legal ratio is 1:5 with 2 year olds and very few nurseries would be able to afford 1:3 right up to preschool. We usually do 1:4 in our nursery unless unavoidable but we have lots of spare staff.

Lunch breaks - the legal minimum break time is just 20 mins unfortunately so they aren't breaking any laws there. Also most workplaces, not just nurseries, do not pay for lunch breaks. 30 mins does sound a bit stingy though for such a long day.

No. Leave! You are being treated terribly. There are not a shortage of jobs in the sector, they should be doing all they can to keep you.

Also, please report! I’d be devastated if this was my child’s experience at Nursery!

I agree with everyone else.

You need to apply for other jobs. The sector has such a staff shortage, it shouldn't be too difficult.

I understand (in reality) why it would be untenable to report to OFSTED whilst you are still there, although in an ideal world that is what ought to happen. Keep a record of all the days the ratios aren't being met and then report as soon as you feel you can.

As pp said though, unfortunately there are so many dc with quite significant SADN now in Nurseries, there will never be enough staff without a radical overhaul of the sector, but 1:5 is far too poor a ratio even if none of the dc had SEND, despite that being the 'allowed' ratio now. If they are not even meeting that, then OFSTED need to know.

The nursery I visited had this situation, kids falling over each other, nappies full, snot dried on their face. Kids in corners left to cry. Hardly any staff in the toddler room. It broke my heart. One little boy just ran to me screaming putting his arms up to take him :( DH and I left and decided nursery wasn’t for us and kept DS home. Please report them.

If you had been given any safeguarding training you would know to report this. It's called 'whistleblowing' and you can inform Ofsted. Get as much detail as you can and write down everything you've mentioned and how often it's happening. They will do an unannounced visit.
You sound lovely though so don't give up on childcare as you are what children need. Apply for other jobs and go look round too so you get a feel for them.
I've worked in lots of nurseries over the years and very few were good enough imo. I'm now a childminder and much prefer it!

If you are serious about safeguarding you need to report it now not when you leave.