Questions for nursery

[pablopatito]

I'm off to look round a nursery this afternoon for DS who will be 2 soon. I have no idea what questions I should be asking, being a complete novice to this parenting lark! Could anyone give me a quick list of essential questions you must ask a potential nursery, or point me in the right direction, please? Thanks.

Anyone?

what mixture of qualified and non qualified staff do they use?

what's staff turnover like?

can you look in the kitchens?

how often do the children play outdoors? do they go for walks or just play on nursery grounds? what about in winter?

how many children are in each room/area etc (to get an idea of how 'full' the room gets.

where do they nap?

how often are drinks offered?

you may also have specific questions regarding your son, perhaps re. diet, nap times, drink times etc to see how the nursery routine compares to your homw routine.

also, try to go and visit more than once and at different times in the day.

and have a look at their ofsted report which you can usually look at on ofsted's website.

check if they will start him in older baby or toddler room - I've just had terrible trouble with my nearly two. Alot of the nurseries wanted to start him in a baby room but because he is such a big lad, and very active I feel he would be better going intop the 2yr old group and coping with being a bit younger.

There's a good recent thread on this here that should give you some good suggestions.