Nursery keeping children inside all day because of heat

[AleaEim]

Just curious if all nurseries sre the same. I’m mostly happy with the nursery my 18m old attends but since the hot weather has kicked in the nursery are keeping them indoors all day despite having a lovely big garden. I don’t see why they can’t out be in the morning, say before 10 or even before 9, I spoke to the manager who said uv levels are too high even in the mornings but I think it’s just an excuse as I’ve checked this and uv levels are not high early in the morning. My daughter attends a childminders on the other three days a week and they go out in her shady garden with the paddling pool nearly every day. I’m just thinking that 15 babies in a room all day in nursery isn’t healthy and wondering whether I should send her to the childminder full time. This weather doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Our nursery are out until 10am and then indoors for the rest of the day. The garden area isn’t shaded though, and they’re too young to be out for long periods in the heat so I’m ok with that personally. Especially as they have lovely aircon!

I work in early years , on days where the UV is high we are out in the garden between 9-11am then back out again 2.30pm- 5pm. Our parents put sun cream on their own child for the morning session and we do the suncream for the afternoon session.

edited to add we have lots of shady areas in the garden with trees and the nursery building provides shade too.

my previous nursery wasn’t as shaded and we weren’t out as often.

So it’s not normal then? The children haven’t been out in the garden any of the days where tempertires have been about 28 which has been most days. I’m shocked because this is an outstanding rated nursery who enticed me in with their forest school, huge garden etc.

That’s ridiculous the kids should be outside for at least some of the time I wouldn’t be happy with this

They are outside from 2:30 in this weather? That can’t be right. It’s really hot then.

The children are out from 2.30pm??? They’re out during the hottest time of the day! That’s madness!

I don’t think it is a massive issue if children don’t get to play outside every day, @AleaEim. I look for an overall balance - do they get the kids outside for extended periods whenever the weather allows, and does that balance up the days when they don’t get to go out - it’s like diet - not looking at one day, when there might be unhealthy choices but seeing the overall picture which is mostly healthy with the odd unhealthy meal.

Also, are you generally happy with the nursery? Is your child happy, thriving and learning there? If the answer is yes, then is this issue big enough for you to choose to move your child, or are you still happy enough to keep your child there?

@rainbowstardrops @Runsaway by that time of day we have lots of shady areas, eg trees, the building shades a big part of our outside space, we are in Scotland it’s not as warm or the Uv isn’t as high as it is in England. We also have a huge shady courtyard which we encourage the children to make use of. We are an outdoor nursery therefore we have plenty of covered areas and access to cold water.

we have been inspected and CI are perfectly happy with our warm weather policies.

Ours have been letting them out until 10:30am in the shaded part of the outdoor area then inside the rest of the day. It's too hot outside! They've been working on making things more 'fun' like taking them into other rooms to play, mixing groups, more activities. But I wouldn't want to be outside and if I was at home my toddler would not be going outside in this heat and UV either.

I’m a childminder. Very hot here. We go out in mornings until 1130/12 and usually stay in rest of day . If it’s under 30 degrees. I’ll let them out 345/4pm to a shaded area in my garden for water play. So I’d say yes unusual but with only 3 mindees I can control what we do and keep them in shade. I know they have sun cream on as parents provide. And I re-do. Maybe with lots of children it’s harder. Maybe there are some parents who complain so they’re kept in.

It’s bloody roasting at 2:30

I work in a pre school so kids are 2-4 years and they are out from 9:15 - 11 then in until 2:30pm when they go out for the last 45 minutes.

I would have thought having them out before 10am would be fine too, then inside for the rest of the day or until after 4pm for the ones that stay a bit later

Well it depends where you are, what direction the garden faces and how much shade there is, doesn't it. I have a north facing garden which is surrounded by big apple trees and leylandi (no idea how to spell that), and its pretty pleasant out there at 2.30, although out the front I would agree it is "bloody roasting".

I wouldn’t be happy with this. I have a 23 month old and we go out every day morning and afternoon - in hot weather, we stick to shade / short bursts / or somewhere with water like a splash park. With a hat, loose cotton clothes, lots of water and sun cream, he’s absolutely fine. What the childminder is doing sounds much closer to what I think is nice for children! Inside can still be warm and feels a lot more stifling than a nice shady park with trees.

Not all nurseries have splash parks or shaded areas they can utilise…

It was a lot cooler in the shade today at 2pm than inside the large church hall I work in. We took the kids out and sat in the shade with ice lollies then played with sand, water etc in shade. We were also outside 9.45-10.15.

You’ll be pleased to know , We weren’t out today at 2.30 as UV was too high. We had an afternoon in due to the UV.

Yeah it’s so weird, my daughter came out in an awful mood yesterday which is unusual and I think it was because she was kept in all day. They were out today tbf and she was
in a better mood. DH and I are going to have a think about it over the weekend. Overall the nursery is ok but it never wowed me, the staff seem a bit disinterested and never say much more than ‘she had a great day.’ I suppose I expected more from an ‘outstanding’ nursery. They have things like developmental reviews every three months which sounded great in theory but then the last one we had they didn’t even know she had started talking a lot whereas the childminder notices lots of things about her development.

@AleaEim you can ask for a meeting with your child’s keyworker at any time. I make an effort to try and catch up with my key children’s parents at least once a week at home time. However a lot of other keyworkers don’t do that and it does annoy me a bit.

we have a few parents who need a bit of reassurance regarding their children due to being their first child at nursery, or their child is settling or behaviour isn’t great and I do try and chat to their parents to reassure them about their child having a good day or mention some positives too. Just makes life easier for some parents.

As a very practical question, what surface do they have outside? If astroturf, then it absorbs the heat and gets ridiculously hot. I would still expect it to be OK first thing in the morning though

I'd rather my grandson was inside with the air con than outside during this heat. My garden thermometer has hit 40 degrees on some days.

My DD's nursery kept them inside, they have no shades areas and air-conditioning inside. I think it's harder for the staff, so I would say they are doing it out of concern for the children rather than anything else.

This past week has been more or less normal but when it was 38/39 degrees (here) a couple of weeks ago they had the water play out for 7.30am arrival and kept them out until about 11am when they could no longer provide adequate shade. They’ve switched from doing suncream entirely themselves to asking parents to do suncream before drop off and they then top up before they go out again in the afternoon. When we’ve done pick ups on really hot days they’re all inside with the main lights off and blinds closed but sensory / fairy lights on.

In normal weather (winter and summer) they’re outside the bulk of the day. The toddlers have their nap outside when it’s fine.

Our nursery has them out in the garden all morning with UV shades, lots of suncream and paddling pools/waterplay. Baby class though, and there are only a few of them, so easy to supervise.