Argh I need some advice, although I think I know your response! Long winded, sorry...
My son is currently at the end of his first year at a private Montessori nursery. He finds the work fun - I think (he's not yet 3), but recently started complaining about a child hitting him. He was extremely reluctant to go to nursery, and we had several tearful dropoffs. I brought this up with the nursery owner (it is v small, just 12 children) and she said that she hadn't noticed it happening but would keep an eye out.
I then had a conversation with another parent who said their child had also had a problem with hitting (from a particular child), and that the nursery owner was surprised.. but as they were older, could articulate exactly what was going on. Later that week, I reiterated my concerns to the owner (after further comments by my son), and she denied all knowledge of a hitting problem, and intimated that my son (2.5yrs) was making it up. As you can imagine, that got me cross!
Fast forward to today, and my son said "I don't want to go to school because of the hitting". Pretty clear - and fair enough. So I got my husband to call up the owner, as he is better (and less emotional!) about these things. He asked a point blank question, and she point blank said that "no other parent had made a complaint about hitting" - a blatant lie.
What do we do? We don't want to move him if at all possible, as it (otherwise) is a fantastic nursery. My son is very bright, but he seems engaged by what is going on, and there is a good staff ratio. But if the owner is happy to lie regarding a) bullying and b) a conversation that is easily cross-checked, what else could they be lying about?
My husband wants to move him, I am not happy with the way the nursery has handled this, but the only alternative is an academic nursery - I know my son is bright (he can read and is good at counting and lateral thinking), but I don't want to pressure him before he's even 3! He is very sensitive so may take the move quite badly.
Help?! Any thoughts, advice etc appreciated.
As a side note, most of the people at/considering the nursery know it is excellent (it was rated outstanding by Ofsted) but agree the owner is not likeable and not particularly nice person to us parents!