access to observation records etc held by childcare provider?

[homelesshedgehog]

Sorry for cross posting - have asked this of the lovely CMs elsewhere on the board as well, since I figure that they might have some direct experience from the other side.

LO is at nursery at the moment. When we looked around we had read a bit about the EYFS, and the manager talked about the observations that they are meant to undertake on a regular basis to review development etc. Since I know that they are meant to be keeping records, am I supposed to have access to them, or have them discussed with me? We've been with them for a number of months now, and nothing has ever been said.

LO is meant to be 'moving up' a room in the summer (when the older children go to school in September) and I've been told that this will happen, assuming that the right 'developmental targets' have been met. Presumably the devil is in the detail of the observations and whether they think LO is 'ready'. But since nobody discusses the observations / EYFS with me, there could be something pretty basic that LO is not doing to tick the right box that we don't know about.

Can I request to see the papers? Does the nursery have to hand them over? Do I need to give notice? I don't want to seem like I'm questioning their judgement, but at the same time, I'd like to know what that judgement is! Have any of you discussed observations with your nursery staff?

I'd just ask them - say you'd be interested to see the observations. Don't think there's any reason why they wouldn't share them.

Bit of an odd comment about your child not ticking the right boxes - it's not an annual appraisal at work!

DS's nursery go through the observations at parents evening. We talked about them, and they told me what they were doing to encourage certain things.

Moving up classes is normally just an age thing, although they may consider not moving a child up from babies to toddlers (for instance) if not walking confidently enough to withstand the rough and tumble just yet.

Thanks - that's reassuring. I don't think that there is a formal parents evening, but anyway, it would be nice to hear what the staff think about development and how we can encourage the same things.
Box-ticking. My phrase not theirs, but it was just the way that things came across - that LO has to be able to do specific things before moving on, as if all kids of a certain age are exactly the same. It does sound like some appraisal horror story from work though. And if they do generally move rooms in the summer, it must surely be age driven, to fit with the school year.
Okay, stopping stressing about whether my child is going to be held back in the nursery until the age of 18!