How to spot a good nursery

[alamel]

This is my first time on Mumsnet and I'd be really grateful for advice on how to find a good nursery. We are thinking of sending our son (10 months) to a nursery for 1-2 afternoons a week but it is really hard to see past the happy, bright presentations each nursery gives (!)and spot differences between them. Unfortunately, all the mums we know have access to work creches so we don't have any local word of mouth to rely on.

He' ll be 2 1/2 in August. Maybe put that a bit wrong. There'll be 30 kids in that class, but divided into 5 groups, each with a nursery nurse( I think). They work their way through 5 rooms each day- a quiet room, construction, role-play and can't remember the others. And start in a different day each morning. The girl showed me their planning charts on the wall- and they were dated 25th Feb! More than a month out of date. See I'm still talking myself out of this one

Just a point I've noticed Sammac - you say there will be 30 kids divided between 5 nursery nurses - legally the staff ratio for 2-3yos is 1:4, so technically they are exceeding that - or will they have 1 nursery nurse and another extra member of staff? - just something to consider...

Main points for me when I was choosing a nursery -

personal recommendation

"gut" feel for the place - this was hugely important for me, DD1 and I went to another nursery to have a look - she screamed the place down whilst we were there (totally out of character!) and I had a "unnerved" feeling. Also woman wanted £40 there and then as a deposit - even though I hadn't decided and I had others lined up to look at.

If they were happy for me to turn up announced

How happy the children were - how they dealt with those crying etc

The nursery I chose over 5 others in the area:

has the owner as manager who also works in the "3-5s" room - impressed that she is very hands-on.

VERY low staff turnover

has an excellent reputation in the community amongst other professionals, ie GPs/HVs/Social Services etc

My DD1 started this nursery in Jan. 1998 when she was 2 1/4 - she's now 8.5 and my DS1 has been through the nursery and left in 2002 and DD2 has been there since she was 2 1/4 and leaves in July to start school in September Myself and the children have all been thoroughly impressed with the nursery and I've never had to query/complain about any of the care received.

DD1 and DS1 both have fond memories of nursery and the same staff that were with them are still with DD2 now!