A big chain nursery can be a great place to send your child

[maretta]

I know, I work in one and I think it's very good.
Not as a nursery nurse but in the office.

I can go and view my children at any time of the day. All the children are being well cared for and the staff are involved.

I get to meet the staff when they're in off duty mode.

I get to listen to discussions about complaints being taken seriously by the management.

There are lots of excellent nurseries out there.

I agree ... my ds has been very happy at the nursery he is in for the last 3.5 years! It is quite possibly not the best in terms of teaching him things but I am not concerned about how he is looked after or cared for!

I registered ds for our local 'big chain'nursery when he was a bump. I thought it was lovely when I looked round. Ds was born prematurely and I ended up choosing more mature childcare where his differences would be noted. I have since heard horror stories about the nursery which really shocked me.

Obviously all nurseries are different and there are good and bad. One question that no one has ever been able to answer satisfactorily is childcare ratios. What happens at your nursery when staff sickness means you cannot comply with the correct Ofsted ratios?

If staff are sick, a temp is brought in from an agency. I used to do temp sickness cover in nurseries.

or someone is brought in from a different branch if it is part of a chain! The staff in our nursery dont even leave the room unless the right number of staff are left on a ratio staff to children basis - they call someone in from another room or the manager/deputy manager.

Our nursery isn't part of a chain but the manager and the two owners are nearly always on site together so they can cover for absences but occassionally there has been someone new there who is clearly covering.

It's great. DS loves it, is very happy, chats about the staff there always in a positive light.

Sorry i know your post was about big chains but i'm just happy with ours and there seem to be alot of posts at themoment about how awful parents are for sending their children to nurseries.

At two nurseries that friends used that never used to happen. One of them would call parents of any children that were slightly poorly - cough/cold etc and say they were too ill to be in nursery (they weren't). They were trying to get their ratios correct without paying for extra staff. At the other they would just breach the ratio, not every time but sometimes. Imo once would be one time too many. Both of them are at the more expensive end of the market too. I didn't use a nursery for different reasons but it always surprised me that my friends tolerated this. They also didn't know on a daily basis who would be looking after their children.

Ds says he loves the "teachers" who looks after him. If we bump into them in town at the weekend they always come up and he gives them kisses and cuddles so I don't doubt he genuinely feels happy and secure with them. Some people query ratios and illness etc - surely if you go to a childminder there are times when she leaves the room to go to the toilet or is distracted or sick ... who looks after the children then?

Obviously if CM is sick she doesn't have mindees that day. As for going to the toilet that takes a few minutes. My concern is the nursery being understaffed the 10 hours that dcs are there. More concerning imo.