Hi,
I know each nursery is different so I was just looking for general experiences at what the main differences between the two are and experiences of the transition phase before I look at trying to speak to someone. More context below which may be longer but those are the main questions.
My DS is 3 next month and has been moved from the toddler room at nursery to pre-school. We were notified via the app which is supposedly for daily updates (quite rare), at the start of December that he would do one visit on a December date and then would do more visits on other sessions. This was by his key worker who then left the job a few weeks later.
As he was off over a lot of December, they had his peers doing visits and moved them all into pre-school. We arrived on his next day in to find his peg outside toddlers was gone and some confusion as to where he was supposed to be.
They then told me they’d moved him on their register to pre-school already but they’d take him into pre-school and do more visits. At pick up time that day, he was still in the pre-school room and we were told to drop him off there from then on as he was happy enough and had his friends, which seemed quite sudden!
He’s an incredible speaker so I don’t think he will struggle with the communication but he does still need a nap a day and is in the process of potty training still. He’s been at nursery since he was 9/10 months and always transitioned wonderfully to each room, even from the very first visit.
He’s been in for further sessions since and we don’t really know any of the staff aside from seeing their photos and names on a ‘team’ board in reception. They seem far more reluctant to tell us any information about his day and less approachable than his previous workers. We have no idea who his key worker is or what the differences are between the rooms. I know ratios are more in pre-school rooms but would still expect some semblance of parent involvement, especially as he’s still young.
Since going in, he’s told me there’s a boy who hit/pushed him and named him. I asked a member of staff who’s face visibly fell and told me he gets 121 support for things they’re trying to work with and it must be this one as there’s another child with the same name but ‘he’s not like that’. Not sure they should have told me that.
DS has told me he’s scared of him and wants me to get rid of him and he’s also started having the mother of all screaming/crying/shouting episodes seemingly over nothing on the way home which has never happened before.
I’ve asked the nursery manager to look into this to make sure he feels okay and he doesn’t develop a problem with the other child. She got back to me to tell me the expectations are different in the new room and it’s probably that. She told me the hours of support the other child gets (again, not sure I should be told this) and that it’s not solely 121. None of the staff can recall seeing any incident and haven’t ever seen DS physically upset so they say. One told her he didn’t want to go home the other day so must be okay; when he’d just been doing his usual excited run around the room with a toy to show us (he’s always done this in the toddler room) and he then preceded to collect his coat and bag from his peg to happily leave.
I’m starting to worry this has all been too soon for him and wondering whether this is standard practice for a pre-school environment before I speak to them. We’re used to knowing a lot about his day, having approachable staff and feel a bit left out.