What was the settling in routine at your nursery and did it work?

[earlyyearssetting]

Was it very gradual or straight in to full sessions ?

Any allowances made if a child needed a bespoke plan?

We are getting presented with a ‘one size fits all’ plan and our child has ASD? Im
mor sure this is going to work , can nurseries be flexible ?

They surely must be flexible, the early years expectations are to have high ratios for the reason that children need more support. If your child has a sen then they are surely obliged to take it into account.
I would go back and make sure they are clear.

They said ‘she will be FINE. If she’s not only then will we look at changing things’ despite me telling them it’s too much too soon and she never reacts well to big changes

We’ve used 3 nurseries for 2 DC but all were drop and leave immediately, but only for an hour at first then increase the interval so long as they were happy building up to a full session by the end of the week. I would have avoided anywhere that encouraged parents to hang around for hours at settling because I feel it’s really disruptive for the other kids so I wouldn’t want that happening regularly in my DC’s class. Obviously SEN is different though, what are they proposing and why don’t you think it’ll work?

When DD1 went they were awesome. She was a lockdown baby, had never really socialised and was my PFB She did an hour settle, then two hours x 2, then a few mornings, then a full day over the course of a month. Worked really well.

They do 1 hour on day 1, 2 hours day 2 then the 3 hour session day 3 and then every day going forward. I asked can we do the plan on the PACEY website where it’s very gradual with different phases. Dd has severe separation anxiety so it needs to be very gradual or it’s going to take longer or not work at all, they seem to want to try their way and then change but I think if she’s got upset then she will be impossible to settle once that’s happened

That sounds exactly how settling has always been for ours. However, I get that it might not work for separation anxiety so that must be really stressful. How old is she? They do have the other kids to consider- if she’s 3 then the ratio is 1:8 with a nursery worker or 1:13 with a qualified teacher so a long process over several days/weeks might be tough for them. I hope you find a solution though, good luck.