Transition to new room?

[FredaFelcher]

Hi all,

My first post on Mumsnet!

My son's first birthday is in two weeks.

He's in nursery fulltime, in the baby room, due to move to the next room when he's 14 months.

I'm generally pretty happy with the nursery. It's taken him a long time to get used to being with other babies, and the girls who look after him, know this.

I picked him up one day last week, and was told he'd "had a visit" to his new room. I hadn't been told that morning he'd have a visit, which I thought was odd.

He looked like he'd been crying, and I was told he'd been very upset in the new room.

They'd left him in there from 1pm to 4pm on his own.

I know very little about nursery practice, but this didn't sit right with me. I called the nursery manager the next day, and made a sort of informal complaint. I asked her, was he plonked in there to correct ratio's in the baby room? Of course she denied it, but that's what I think.

I asked could they at least let me know when a visit is planned (which is their standard practice) and that his visits are much shorter from now on, with someone familiar to stay with him for a while once in there. Building, obviously, to longer and more frequent visits.

Common sense, surely.

This morning I was informed he was due a visit today. I asked them how long he'd be in there, and was told two hours. I asked (nicely!) could they make it shorter?

"Hhm, yeah, we will ask them" was the response.

Pardon? I have mentioned my concerns once, and now they are plonking him in there a week later, for two hours.

If this me being over protective? I just would have expected a more gradual bedding in process for him.

Any thoughts welcome - not really got much experience in this so it's all new for me...

I have 2DC both of whom went through the nursery system (DD has just started school and DS is 3 and is in 'biggies') and I would have been HORRIFIED if this had happened to either of them!

When they moved from babies to toddlers each one was taken through with their keyworker for visits (the keyworker stayed with them)and the first visit was about 15 minutes or so, graduating to an hour over a period of about a month. In the final couple of weeks they would spend 2-3 hours there but ONLY if they were happy to stay.

If either of the children were not happy or finding it too much they were taken back to babies (DS loved toddlers from the moment he got there but DD found the transition there harder)- they always went with their keyworker who stayed with them. As they got more confident about going up each child went through to toddlers with a 'friend' who was also moving through so they could go through and be together. The whole transition process was done over 6 weeks or so and the exact timescale was dictated by the children - how well they were coping with the move etc. DD took about 6 weeks of visits but with DS he went through after about 3 weeks as he loved it so much in toddlers.

We were even allowed to come and watch through the window so we could see how well each child was doing in the new room before agreeing to the move!

I would be making a formal complaint I can't believe is it acceptable to leave a year old baby in a new environment with no familiar faces for 4 hours - ask them to justify and explain to you how this meets the Early Years Framework criteria about promoting emotional wellbeing!

beagle101 - thanks so much for confirming what i suspected. It just isn't right, is it.

Today he was left in there for an hour, not the two they alloted him. I was still not overly happy with that, but he was SO happy when I picked him up, and they told me repeatedly how well he'd taken to the new room.

I am in the process of writing a letter of complaint to the nursery, to attempt to make them realise I'm not going to let this go.

He has another visit planned for tomorrow, and I am going to ask again that he's not left more than an hour at the longest.

I have mentioned to the girls in the room that I am shocked he is left there alone, but they just murmur sympathetically. (overbearing parent, I can hear them thinking).

Ta x

Hi, I would suggest you ask to see the nursery's policy on settling in procedures and transition between rooms/stages.
Have to say moving up at 14 months seems a strange time as staff ratios don't change until child is 2. I'd check the ratios are definitely still going to be 1 adult to 3 children.
I was an early years advisor for several years and this is definitely bad practice not to have his key worker with him during this time.