Help with my nursery dilemma!

[EightiesChick]

Would be interested to hear other people?s thoughts on my nursery dilemma.

I?ve looked at a few nurseries and two stood out for me ? they are very different but each has strengths and I?m undecided about which to go for. My DS will be 9 months when he starts nursery.

A) Smaller nursery, with a yard only for outdoor space but nice rooms, felt cosy.
Baby room divided into walkers and non-walkers. Cots for napping though not one for each child if at full capacity, I think.
Babies stay in the baby room till up to 18 months, till they are ?steady on their feet?, before moving to the toddler room.

B) Very large nursery, well equipped (lots of PCs etc), huge garden
Baby room ? all babies together, each has their own cot labelled with their name.
Babies move up to the toddler room at 12 months, whether or not they are walking ? this allows them to learn from the more physically active children.

Which do you think you?d go for? I am a bit divided between the different qualities they have, and also about the move from baby room to toddler room. I hadn?t paid as much attention to the toddler room at nursery B, and when I realised that my DS would only actually be spending 3 months in the baby room if he went there, wished I had ? so I may go back and look at this again.

Thanks in advance for any opinions.

Sorry for all the ?s - I typed this in Word first and in pasting over it's made all the apostrophes and dashes into ?s. Didn't show up in preview either. Oh well, hope you get the gist of it anyway

Have you read their Ofsted reports?

hmm what was your gut feel on each of them?

i think the most important thing is that the staff are kind and friendly and that it's a nice atmosphere.
garden size and equipment and all that is secondary IMO.

If you felt equally happy in both as a gut feeling, I'd go for the one with the big garden. My DCs' nursery has a big garden and they've got so much out of that, particularly DS who is an active boy with a lot of energy to burn off.

Ofsted - nursery A was satisfactory for care and good for education; nursery B was good for both.

I do have more of a gut feeling drawing me to one, but I wanted to see how people would judge the attributes of the nurseries separately from that. I know posters here say gut instinct is the key thing, and I believe that too, but I also wanted some objective judgement on the other features.
Thanks for the input so far!

Gut feeling very important but it's difficult to think ahead. Your 9 month old will be very different in a year and I'm guessing you won't want to move him around.

I would go for the garden every time. My DSs love the garden at our nursery - they spend hours running around and have a covered area for when it's raining. For them to be stuck inside or in a small yard would be hell.

It's really hard isn't it - I can't even remember being shown the rest of the nursery when I was looking for my first baby - I must have been but I thought it was pretty irrelevant and promptly forgot it!

I work in a nursery and I would go for B
Because the outdoor space is very important.
Moving them up to the next room is better because they get bored so easily in the baby room, and that is when you get the biting and scratching happening. It doesn't really matter that they can't walk yet.

I agree with the other posters about the value of a garden and all the other facilities in (B) ... but in my experience, sometimes very large nurseries with the best facilities and great OFSTED ratings can in reality be a bit overwhelming and soulless and not the best environment for a child.

Sometimes a smaller, more cosy nursery with a lovely caring feeling, staff continuity etc ... even if it isn't as shiningly spotless and with brand new toys and PCS ... is actually a more homely and loving environment.

I would go with your gut feeling and what you thought about the carers. Good luck

Go with your gut feeling, but for me I would choose nursery A.

I would go for the garden every time, particularly when they are getting a little older. My 2yo has to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the nursery garden. She moved up from baby to toddler room when she was 16 months old, and was walking.

But I agree with the other posters, it was all about the staff for me. Although dd's nursery is quite big, they still manage to create a really homely atmosphere and I have the utmost confidence in them.

My son's nursery sounds exactly like nursery A and it is fantastic.

Just because a nursery is big doesn't make it souless and just because a nursery is small it doesn't mean you get better staff and less turnover.

My dc go to a small nursery (with a huge garden!) but if one member of staff leaves it is completely unsettling as it impacts on everyone and they have to do all sorts of trickery to cover until a new member of staff joins. Turnover is quite low but there have been periods everyone leaves at once. Recently of the 8 employees (all within 2 months) one retired, two were pg and one got a new job - this left a parttimer and a 70 year old, not ideal.

What I'm trying to say is don't judge on big or small but go for the one you would be happy for your child to go to for the next 4 years (potentially).

The outside space is so important, I'd go for B.

Although both the ofsted report is important, as is outside space, IME gut instinct should be followed.

We had to move our DC from their fab nursery cos it was attached to a job DH got made redundant from. I viewed all the nurseries in the area and the one I settled on is small and friendly. It passed all its care commission reports ok, has a reasonable size garden but what struck me as good was that the kids progress through the rooms at their own rate. there are only 6 in the baby room (with 3 staff) so its a fab atmosphere. The toddler room is a bit bigger with 12. all the kids eat together in the dining room and they are encouraged to help setting the tables etc.

the bigger nurseries were more like schools with so many staff that my DC could never remember everyone and i felt lost so i can image how they would feel.

the other thing is that IME smaller nurseries are more flexible. eg i have an 8 weeks block of training coming up and my nursery is being really flexible taking DC for the odd hour between me starting work and DH finishing. A bigger nursery may not be able to off this flexibility

Go with B. If your baby is a later walker he will get very frustrated

A.

But we had a bad experience at a large nursery and very good experiences at 2 different small nurseries (more than one child).

If B is part of a chain and A isn't I would definitely go for A

so which one are you gonna choose?

Thanks for all your responses. I am still undecided but the replies here have helped to get me thinking about what's important. Probably the major issue for me was the move from baby to toddler room, but looking at the thread the garden or lack of was the biggest issue for people reading! I think my feeling is based on looking at my DS now (currently 4 months) and imagining him being overrun by a group of boisterous toddlers! I have to remember he will be bigger and more active himself by then (I don't really want him to ever change at the moment... )

Nigella, did you mean if DS is an earlier walker he will get frustrated, since you're endorsing B? Just checking as this was the point that most worried me.

The other thing I forgot to post (sorry for bringing this in now) is that I dropped in at no notice at A, but had to make an appointment at B. When I asked about calling in without notice, they didn't absolutely say this was forbidden, but had it clear they much prefer to have people book appointments to be 'shown round properly'. I have seen this mentioned as a red flag on her before - what do people think?

My plan now is to do a repeat visit to both in the next few days, and then make my mind up for sure. You can probably tell that DH gets very frustrated going shopping with me But when looking at houses, we saw 2 on the same day and at first viewing I preferred the first, whereas on second viewing the second seemed absolutely right, and that's where we now live, with no regrets.

Thanks again - any further thoughts still welcome. I wil post which one I go for!

The nursery I use has a yard, and it is used all year round. I think outdoor space is very important, but does it matter what size or surface? I really think gut feel is the way to go.

My nursery prefers you to make an appointment but I guess wouldn't turn you away if you just turned up. As a parent with dc there I can turn up any time no problem.

They prefer viewing parents to make an appointment so that they organise staff so that they can spend time with you without being taken away from the children. Also makes sure you can see the room away from the busy drop off/pick up times, not at sleep times (so you don't wake the children up and you can see interaction between them). It's so that you both get the best from the visit not so they can put away the baby cages and child chains .

Having another is a good idea - hope everything is clear on that visit.

I think nigella meant that if your child is a later walker he would be in the baby room for longer in nursery A but I may be wrong.
I can see why calling in unannounced could be a red flag but I agree with Loler.

Becauase i work at a uni's nursery we get many people drop by unannounced, we can give them info packs and aplication forms and boook them in for a visit, but what was said above is true, the reason for visit to be scheduled, is to make sure that someone is there for to do the tour, as our managers, clearly have work to do or having meetings, this is a more approiate way of doing things, i don't think a nursery has anthing to hide doing it this way and we have a massive glass panel that allows to see out into a huge garden which is great, and i do think garden space is essential especially cause i work with two year olds and they really need to run and that isn't allowed indoors. also many children in my nursery have moved from babies to toddlers without being able to walk. Lots of different factors are taken into account when i child moves up the child doesn't need to be walking to be ready and visa versa a children may be walking but not ready to move up

I work in a nursery and would choose nursery B, outdoor play is really beneficial, even the babies play in the garden at ours.

i would also choose the one with the garden it is used every single day in my room, we love it, the children love it and its great for the children to extend there learning and play outdoors, but as most people have said, go with your gut instinct.

Hello, I have three children at nursery at the moment and would definitely choose nursery B, although our nursery sounds like a cross between the two. I think outdoor space is really, really important, my children love being in the garden, their nursery has lots of play equipment and although my ds is quite shy, he loves running around out there and he comes home talking about mud-balls and quad bike races !

I did look round a big chain-owned nursery and the one thing that put me off was the fact that there were about 24 children in an open plan room from 3 month old babies up to 2 years. That was too noisy for me !! Our nursery has 6 in each room, there are 4 rooms up to 2 years, then two bigger rooms for 2-3 and 3-5, it works very well.

I think staff continuity is really important too, as well as parental recommendation. It's also important to remember that the difference between sending a small baby (my dd2 is now 10 months and at nursery) is TOTALLY different from sending a 4 and a half year old, so you have to think long term - visit all the rooms and ask staff how long they've been there for.

Helen xxx