Any experience of how ths works?

[tryingtobemarrypoppins2]

An open plan room for 0-3 year olds??? How are babies kept safe from leaping toddlers etc!! Does it work well?

dd's former nursery had a 0-2 room. The non-mobile babies had a kind of area that was partially sectioned off with sofas so when the older ones were active the smaller ones could sit with the staff and be cuddled etc.

All of the dcs slept in cots at their different sleep times which helped with keeping order.

Might get rather noisy when one or 4 start crying!

I'm assuming they section off areas using cupboard units and fences etc. If you're looking around nurseries, spend a bit of time there. You should also read their ofsted report. Don't go to any nursery with a poor mark.

From EYFS Statutory Framework (May 2008 edition)

"there should be a separate baby room for children under the age of two, but they should be able to have contact with older children and be transferred to the older age-group after the age of 18 months or as appropriate for their individual stage of development."

Does not sound as though they comply with that... could you e-mail me their URN (or Name + Postcode) so I can take a look at their inspection reports - may help show how they do manage a 0-3 group room. See my profile for contact details.

When I've worked in nurseries... small nurseries have often only had 2 rooms - one for under 2's and one for 2-5's. It actually worked very well but the number of children being cared for was low. The Under 2's room for example was limited to 6 children.

Is this a very small nursery... say registered for 24 children in total? If so then the baby room may well have a 6 child limit and children aged 2+ may well be mixed in with the older children most of the time.

While the nursery may be registered for children from birth... they may not actually take them from that age. Ask them what age children they currently have in that room. You may find that one or two are under 1, others are 1+.

Main time of problems was Lunchtime, where it can be all hands on deck with feeding. Fortunately with children of that age, some will feed as and when needed, rather than on the nursery lunch schedule... some one or two may have been asleep by the time the older children sat down for lunch.

Many many thanks Nick, just emailed you.

The nursery our 10 month old has just started at is like this. Its quite small, and has only started taking under 1s this year. They have 3 under 1's (who are 10 months +). The babies have a small section that is partitioned by bookcases etc. They seem to love the noise and action of the older ones, although sleep provision isn't great with a travel cot in the main room.
They seem to get alot more 1-1 attention from staff and the whole place felt alot more comfortable and natural than the franchise nurseries we looked round, some of which had 21 babies in one room and felt very clinical!

Take a good look around as many nurseries as you can to get a good feel for the different styles. What suits one baby won't necessarily suit another. Good luck.

The partitioned area and lots of 1:1 attention from staff sounds good. Lack of a proper sleep room is a bit bad but as the nursery is small then there may not have been any other option.
Laisee I agree with you that the baby rooms in some nurseries seem very clinical. Babies if at home grow up in a family environment, so duplicating that as much as possible within nursery to me makes sense. Safety concerns need to be tackled though - such as adults and older children not stepping on babies - thus why babies often have a separate area which is often soft carpeted floor with a No-Shoes policy.

The nursery in tryingtobemarrypoppins2 case is registered for 119 children, of which 21 can be under 3. How many babies are actually on roll is unknown, though I expect they probably try to have a mix of ages rather than have lots of under 1's. The biggest issue I think is that the babies do not appear to be in a separate area, though perhaps that is created (by using screens/movable bookcases) when it is felt that the babies need some time away from the older children.