Nursery situation

[redsquirrelmonkey]

Hi,

I'm just looking for some views on a situation that occurred yesterday when I picked DS up from nursery. It's been playing on my mind but I don't know if I'm being unreasonable or a bit precious so would really welcome others views.

My DS is 18m and in nursery full time. He loves it there, and I've never had an issue before, really think it's a great place.

The baby room is upstairs, and the way it is laid out is there is a door off the hallway across which there is a baby gate. There is the main baby room behind this gate with 2 doors on either side of the baby room, one leading to the sleep room, the other to the messy play area/baby changing etc. When parents arrive we just stand on the other side of the baby gate and the nursery staff will come over to us with our little ones, we have a chat about their day etc, all good.

So yesterday I turned up, stood at the gate and looked into the main baby room to see only my DS and a little girl standing in the room, no carers. I called to my DS and he ran over to me, put his arms up to be lifted up so I picked him up over the gate and held him there. The little girl also came over to the gate and so I was chatting to them both. Still no carers.

Where we were stood, we would have been out of sight of both of the rooms that lead off from the main room, so I basically know that the 2 were not being watched by the carers as it must have been a minute or so before one of the carers came out of the sleep room and looked somewhat surprised/panicked to see me.

My feeling is that there was an issue here, because clearly no one was watching my DS and the little girl because they were out of eye sight and it took quite some time before anyone came to check where they were. Maybe I'm being dramatic but it feels like someone could have come along and picked them up and left with them, and the staff wouldn't have realised until it was too late.

I should say, the front door downstairs can only be operated by a fob which only the parents have, and the nursery do ask you not to let other people in and out when you're coming and going, but I know other parents do hold to the door so it's not an infallible system.

I don't want to go OTT about this but my gut feel is I should mention it to the nursery, as it feels like a failure to me. But am I being unreasonable to expect that there should be someone in the main room at all times with the babies?! I think it's different if they're by themselves in the rooms that feed off the main room as no one else can access these, but where the main room has access from the hallway, I can't see that it's ok to leave the babies unattended in there?!

Sorry it's so long, it's a bit of a brain dump, and thanks in advance for any opinions!!

Report your concern,approach the manager.however you say were only waiting for 1 min or so until staff emerged
If it’s overall good it’s probably a momentary lapse,but raise it nonetheless

Thanks, yes I think I'll say something to the manager. I don't want to make a massive deal of it but similarly it doesn't feel right to just forget about it.

Mention it but I'd leave my kids for a minute it's from time to time at that age to get washing in or grab something out of the freezer in the garage
Or out the bins out etc - if it's a one off that's ok

If they were bad I'd suspect you'd have to ring a doorbell or be let in to make sure everyone was at their station to look perfect all the time, the fact you can wander in and out makes me think they're probably actually pretty good

The EYFS (if you live in an area that covers) says that the staff should be in sight and hearing of the children most of the time and in sight or hearing of the children all of the time. The fact no-one saw or heard you talking would be of concern to me so absolutely worth mentioning.

That's interesting to know, thanks @OddBoots. I wasn't sure what the actual rules are in nurseries regarding the level of supervision expected.

I don't so much have an issue with them not having an eye on the babies at all times, I know myself that's unrealistic. It was more that thought that - what if it hadn't been me at the gate that arrived without them realising? What if it had been someone who shouldn't have been there, there would have been an opportunity for them to take a baby and the staff wouldn't have realised? I know that probably sounds really dramatic, but it was difficult not to see worst case scenario.

Thanks for all the advice though, I will speak to management tomorrow.