Nursery viewing .....

[mummysbigsmiles]

I am visiting my daughters soon to be nursery .... I want to ask questions ... About safety, health, can anyone tell me things i should be looking out for when im in there.... Safety gates etc...

Do they have a separate sleep room, if your child still naps. Will they administer prescribed medicine? What is their sickness policy? Do they post their food menu (if not taking it in), what's their nappy change routine (matters more than you might think). How do they update you on your dd's day? Is their a parents committee, what came up at the recent meeting? How much outside time to they get, what is their policy on that (ie try and get them out daily for x).

The best advise i can give is dont make an appointment for a viewing. Just turn up out the blue.

I say this as a nursery nurse whos worked in many different nurseries. No longer a nursery nurse now though.

The thing with making an apointment is that they plan things around your visit. The will put out certain toys for your visit that look interesting. They will make sure staff are doing circle time with the children. All staff will be on the ball.

When you book an appointment they put on a fake showing for you, however when you just turn up, they arent expecting you and no one is prepared and thats when you will see exactly how the nursery is.

If your child has a dummy, ask their policy on this, as some nurserys dont like them and will discourage your child from having it, even if they are crying for it.

This may sound odd, but at our first viewing of DD's nursery, I didn't ask a lot of questions. We had a really really good look round, of all the rooms, not just the baby room which DD would be going into, met a lot of the staff, walked round the garden, and just generally got a feel for the place. They gave us a lot of literature to look through as their policies were very well documented, and offered a second visit if we had more questions which we took them up on, then I turned up with my long list of questions, wanting to know how all the fancy documents related to how they would actually care for my DD.

I think for us, the actual feel of the place was the first obstacle, it had to be homey and somewhere DD would be loved, safe and comfortable, and the policies/health and safety etc would be the second test. If I hadn't walked in and felt DD would have liked it there, I wouldn't have even read the pile of literature we were given, or asked my ridiculous number of questions!

I have worked for 17 years at a nursery and we have never put out certain toys when parents come to look round. The staff in the room never know when a parent is looking round so nothing is staged. We do however discourage dummies but never when a child is new,tired or upset. But would put dummy away in a pot when the child is playing happily to encourage language development.

I would ask how long staff had worked there and what qualifications they have. How many are parents themselves. You will be told loads of information on your visit but always ask questions if unsure or worried about about something they say. Ask to stay a little longer in the room your child will be in talk to the staff, watch how the staff and children interact together. Get the feel of the place and then trust your instincts.

I agree with just turning up. I was only interested in two nurseries. One said come in any time, no need to call ahead. The other had weekly tours and a completely ott hour long presentation from the "director" and you could not get near the place at any other time. All staff standing to attention when you went in and - this is key - the tour was done during nap-time when all the children were asleep!!

I went with the former, obviously. An open-door policing is essential with day-care nurseries. Your instinct will direct you.

My first question would be about staff turnover - happy staff make happy carers and if the staff turnover is low, your DD will form solid relationships with the staff and vice versa - that way the staff get to know when your DD is out of sorts, tired, what she enjoys. Following on from that, will she have a Key Carer? How will nursery let you know what kind of day she has had, food, sleep, nappies etc. Will they adopt your routine? Where do they sleep? Just look at the staff and how they interact with the children, are they affectionate, are the children engaged, having fun, happy to approach staff?

Good luck, its quite overwhelming to start with!