My son who is 4 and 9 months has been attending the same nursery for almost 2 years. He is bright, funny, energetic and loves to be with other children. But recently they have raised multiple concerns about him and told me that there are barriers for him going to school. This has coincided with a change in staff (it started when his key worker left and since then 4 more have followed with one original member of staff remaining).
They say he is rough in his play, doesn’t like to join in anymore and stamps his feet when asked to do an activity. This is unlike him, he used to come home with loads of models and handmade cards speaking about how they danced to music they like and now it’s as if the whole mood and atmosphere of the nursery has changed and they are raising concerns about his behaviour before considering that the staff changes may be contributing.
I was phoned the other day because he had put rice on a child’s head at lunch time, when he was told to stop he got up from the lunch table and mucked about in the room. The teacher told me that it ‘usually works when we threaten to phone mum but not today’ I had no idea this was a strategy they were using to manage his behaviour and was horrified. I went to collect him because they couldn’t get him to co-operate, when I got there the new manager didn’t even know they had phoned me.
I would really like to remove him however he starts school in August so feel this may be more harmful for him.