2 year old starting nursery - problems with settling in

[PollyIndia]

Hi all
2 year old DS had settling in today for his new nursery. He's been looked after by a nanny (share) and then a childminder before this. It was awful - he cried every time he couldn't see me and pulled about 6 kids' hair really hard. He had a little phase of hair pulling at the beginning of the year with his nanny share boy but he's not done it for 6 months. It made me feel like such a terrible parent!
Is this normal? Is it because he felt out of his depth? Am I being PFB being so upset by this?! He's normally really sociable and likes holding hands with other kids etc, so this was weird - the childminder was really surprised too.
Any advice?
Also, they don't have key workers at this nursery. Is that normal?
Thanks :)

Why no key workers? I'm not sure if its normal or not, but the two nurseries I've used for my boys have had them and its been very important IMO for them to build a close relationship with one particular member of staff, albeit only for as long they're in that class.

As for the behavioural issues - this was day one - I'd just try to take a deep breath and hope things improve as he settles in. Does he understand that hair-pulling is wrong and hurts? Kids do sometimes regress to undesirable behaviour when they're stressed.

I think he does. When he did it before, if I was there, I just said no, pulled him away and said be gentle. Then he would go back and stroke the other boy's hair. So he does understand I think.

The key worker thing is weird - they have all kids 2-4 in the same room so 6 kids per employee and there is 1 key worker per child to complete the paperwork but no key workers from a relationship perspective. They just said they don't do that. I was a bit concerned as my niece particularly was really helped to settle in by her key workers.

Okay, well maybe they find that DC gravitate to the member of staff they like best and so that person becomes a kind of unofficial key worker? Putting all the 2-4s together though is a big age range. Is it a small nursery?

Yes it is small. Maybe 18 children in the 2-4 room I think.

I would say he feels out his depth and that's a reaction to it. My daughter has her 4th morning today at nursery and she screams blue murder. It's very hard on us parents trying to get kids into nursey x

It is bedsheets! He went back for an hour yesterday and cried when he realised I had left (I heard him as I was unlocking my bike) but was happy as larry when I picked him up - no more hair pulling either, thank god. Dropped him off again today, this time for a morning, and cried again. He stopped before I had left though so hopefully he will have had a good morning.
Hope your DC settles inquickly