I?ve just found this thread after joining mumsnet and noticing the heading about Lanterns in the latest posts in my local area (Tower Hamlets). I thought I would add my experiences for the benefit of other parents reviewing this and deciding where to send their children.
My child is at Lanterns now, and has been going there for a relatively short period of time (weeks rather than months). We were very impressed with the viewing we had last summer. We did notice the ?inadequate? Ofsted report at around the time we looked around, and I spoke to the director about it and was satisfied with the response (which was along the lines of negrilbaby?s explanation, i.e. there are differing views on what is ?best?). It seemed that the reason for the bad report was the fact that Lanterns operated a timetabled day where children were moved from room to room for different activities (soft play, art, dance and so on), and this didn?t meet the Ofsted guidelines which are based around children making their own choices about what they want to do. However, we liked the timetable system, and so made the decision to sign up anyway.
We have recently made a complaint to Lanterns based on several problems we have observed. The first of these, ironically, is that the timetable system which we were sold on is now not operating ? it seems they had to give in to pressure from Ofsted to change the way they worked. At least for the children in the baby room (our only experience), this system no longer operates, and all the activities (except outdoor excursions) take place in one room as far as we can tell ? however, to compensate for this, the size of the baby room has doubled as they have taken over what used to be the year 1 room. They now have some soft play equipment, a water tray, sandpit, art & craft table and so on in the new section.
The other problems, as far as we were concerned, were as follows:
- as above, the fact that our child won?t now be moving out of the baby room throughout the day. This includes for eating, as we have observed that only the older children who can walk themselves to the dining room are taken out ? the younger ones eat in plastic chairs on the floor in the baby room.
- The food. No snacks are offered (not sure if this is the same for other nurseries?), and the menu has no fruit, except at breakfast apparently (our child eats breakfast at home). No puddings.
- Age range in the baby room. As year 1 is full, there are currently several older children in the baby school (I have heard they will soon be moving up though), and we have observed problems with this, i.e. older children charging around where much younger babies are left on the floor.
- Failure to follow instructions. We have reminded staff not to use wipes on our child on many occasions, yet they still forget and our child has had nappy rash every week since starting as a result.
- Staffing. Again, this may be the case across the board in nurseries. Staff seem to do their paperwork (planning) through the day when they are meant to be caring for the children. The result is that the ratio of staff to children is on a practical level much lower than the required minimum. The ratio isn?t always maintained such as first thing in the morning and at lunchtimes.
- Facilities for giving EBM ? no fridge in the baby room (it?s upstairs), so we are not confident the milk is stored effectively. My EBM was overheated on our settling in session.
- Sleeping. Some mothers I know are concerned that the cots are in the main room ? this doesn?t bother us. However, the mattresses are saggy, and the babies are put to sleep on their tummies with loose blankets, which is a concern.
- Dummies. We did not ?wean? our child off the dummy before starting, but we are concerned at how often it is given. We have also seen that there is a ?nursery dummy? which children pick up (and I was told was given to children when they were teething).
We have not had a response to our complaint (made 2 weeks ago). I will let you know what happens, but if these issues are not resolved, we will have no choice but to pull our child out.