I notice this post turns up more than once so I am posting my reply to it where ever I find it.
I don't recognise the nursery that you are talking about. Dirty? No. Worn? Yes. Depending on what time of the day you turn up I can promise you that they can often be caught cleaning. Of course a lot of their equipment is worn. they are cheap and find it difficult to replace their equipment, so instead of carping why don't you do what a lot of parents do and donate?
Unpresentable? I'm not sure what you mean. They all wear nursery tops, don't wear inappropriate clothes, jewellery etc and have always been clean and neat when I have turned up. As for the rest, they have always been polite, patient, gentle etc with all my family.
Alright, I'll give you the 'strange man'. An introduction, a smile, a word would help here. He is the husband of the owner and helps out, often at the end of the day. You will be pleased to know he doesn't make up the numbers to make the legal ratio, but does wear a nursery top to differentiate him from a random person just hanging around. And I grant you that doesn't help a huge amount.
You make very specific allegations regarding cleanliness while cleaning toilets and returning from the garden. They don't have a toilet and use the Leisure Centre toilet not 10 metres from the Nursery door. They do do nappy changing however and I have never seen them not wash their hands in the very few occasions I have had to be near the restricted area (I have an eCRB and as stated earlier make sure that I put something back into the nursery that takes care of my precious ones) that you don't have access to, so how you'd know they don't do something when you can't see what they are doing is a mystery.
They don't wash their hands when returning from the garden. But then they don't hose the children down either who have been playing out their putting their grubby hands etc in their mouths all outside play time. By the time the little ones get back in the cross contamination has already occured and is more healthy for them than not letting htem get on with it in the first place. There is a huge mound of research on how outside dirty play at a young age helps build the immune system for later in life. I can't be bothered to list all the research papers but maybe this will suffice: www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66838.php www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article1596735.ece They do wipe down surfaces and wash their hands prior to serving food on every occasion I have been there.
Disorganised and poorly organised. OFSTED would disagree as would the queue of parents lining up to talk to the OFSTED inspectors this time round. Shame that all these parents with negative experiences that you mentioned couldn't find the time to talk to them isn't it?
I am sorry to hear of your experiences regarding contact with your key worker. That really isn't good enough. It's not the same experience I have had, but their have been occasions when my key worker has been unavailable but someone has always been able to give me all the information that I need.
I am confused about the starting day of your child as they have a strict transition policy that would have required you to attend with your child and be introduced to your key worker. The "key worker cleans at that time" comment. I don't understand it. It's a small nursery, walk in the door and walk up to your key worker, look on the key worker notice that lists all the key workers and the children they look after if you don't know who it is, because if you had asked that's what they would have done.
Never received feedback on my child. Really!? Ok, now your pushing the limits of my credulity. The daily A4 feedback form that is handed to every parent who walks in the door when they come into the nursery and the fact that they talk through it with the parent who picks them up? Did you just never notice them? Who picks up your child anyway? Obviously not you.
Your weren't told about the parents evening, which changed.
You don't say how it was changed, but the last two parents evenings have been on fixed nights and locations. Even if they missed telling you in person about the parents evenings the giant great big notices around the nursery on both occasions were a bit of a give away. Considering you obviously don't seem to pay attention to what's going on in the nursery you certainly seem to have noticed a lot of negative? Are you sure you don't work for an opposition nursery?
The lack of art work unless you ask. The nursery sticks very closely to the EFYS as laid out by the Dfes and inspected on by OFSTED. I clearly expect to see progress and results based on that, and reported on in the A4 daily briefing sheet provided to me by the staff. Not fancy bits of art work produced as a panacea to my ego as some other, more expensive nurseries do.
Some things you report, I cannot answer, the little boy crying for example, their inability to be able to answer your question for example and I agree with you about the 'strange man'. But you paint a picture of a nursery that I don't recognise and I have highlighted what I can only call inaccuracies in your observations and also inaccuracies in your comments. Does someone else sometimes/usually pick up your child and never bother giving you the information? Its the only thing I can think of to explain them.