If your toddler is at nursery…

[anicecuppateaa]

….how many other children are in their nursery room? My 16 month old started in the baby room of a new nursery in Oct, with 9 babies and the plan was to move into the toddler room in Sept 2024 when he turns 2.

Today the staff have told me he is moving in Jan as they need the space for younger babies. There will be 21 children in the room, up to 2.5 years and a ‘mixed ratio’ of staff (so no longer 1:3).

I’m worried this is a LOT of children and he is going to get lost, especially amongst the bigger/ more vocal/ physically able ones.

So, if you have a similar aged dc at nursery, how many are in their room?

My DD is 17 months, starting nursery next month. She’s in the baby room, though they may move her up early based on how she finds it. From the taster sessions so far it looks as if her baby room has the same staffing levels as your nursery’s toddler room. I found it incredibly overwhelming for the 2 hours I was there, god knows how the staff feel.

That's a lot of children, but presumably they will have the required number of staff? Our daughters room (age 2-3) varies a bit depending on the day of the week but is more like 10-15 ish

Thanks, that makes me feel like I’m not overreacting about my fears. The ratio thing was a bit odd and they were very vague when I asked. In the baby room the ratio is 1:3, but I think its 1:4 or 1:5 now in the toddler room and I’m just not sure this change is in his best interests…..

I wonder whether to ask to discuss it more before anything changes…

That is a lot of children, and a lot of staff – I would want to know how they plan to manage it, will they have small groups within the room so the little ones can bond with a few primary carers? If they subdivide it in some way, that make it easier for them to ensure all children are getting attention as well. I really would not be keen if it's just one big mix.

The nursery we use has two rooms for under 2s, each with about 6 children (with a connecting door, they are sometimes free-flow between them, sometimes separate depending on what's going on and the mix of stages of development). The 2-3 room has 8 children, I think, certainly not more than 10.

With ratios, I don't believe there is a special 'mixed ratio', but it's the number of staff across the whole site that counts for the ratios. So if they have a room of 10 under twos and 11 two-year-olds, they need: 3 'covering' 3 under-2s each, 1 covering 1 under-2 and 2 two-year-olds, and then 2 for the remaining two-year-olds, so 6 in total (not all of whom will be in the room at all times; at a minimum, they'll need to go change nappies, get food at snack time, etc.). However, realistically, that doesn't mean that the under-2s will still get 1:3 attention in a mixed room, just that there should be the correct number of people on site to hypothetically do so.