Is this normal practice?

[HermionesAunt]

My child's nursery started having a formal welcome time where the children are gathered together. The welcome time starts 30 mins after nursery opens to accommodate different arrival times. That seems good.

What seems unusual is that the children must spend the first 30 mins of their session sitting at a table in their "base area" while the others arrive. The "base area" is a small room with 2 tables in it - each table seats 10 children. So there are 20 kids sitting at 2 tables in an area about the size of an average domestic living room.

Each table normally has an activity on it, but no choice of activity. The staff say the children are free to move between the 2 tables but the children would have to ask another child to stand up and move away from a table in order to get to the other activity. So the children just stay at their original table.

I wondered if waiting at a table in a restricted area of the nursery (whether or not the children like the activity) fits in with good early years practice.

Is this quite common?

What are the benefits to the children, if any?

This is not good early years practice. It would most definetly fit into the fucking stupid practice catagory. Giving a child one activity to play with for half and hour is terrible. A choice of 3 activities is not good, a choice of 5 is still slightly on the poor side, but one?!
It is not commom. I've not seen anybody do this. Ofsted would not be happy AT ALL! They want the whole range of nursery stuff to be available from the start: Sand, water, painting, small world, construction, role play, mark making, IT, etc. Due to staff shifts most nurseries can't totally satisfy ofsted and usually keep the messy stuff(sand, water, paint) shut until the 9 o'clock shift start.
Ask the manager "would ofsted be happy with a choice of only two activities offered in the morning?" I'm sure they would be very uncomfortable replying.

Agree with tiggy, terrible practice. Poor children. 5 minutes of sitting for preschoolers is along time. 30 minutes is unacceptable. Go and speak to the manager

Not sure what I should do now. I've spoken to the head of the nursery on a few occasions already. The head doesn't seem to want to change things. I've spoken to my child's keyworker a number of times too.

No, that sounds dreadful and not in any way benefitting the children. The only reason I can think of for doing it is to put people off bringing their children in until as close to the whole group time as possible. I would be asking the HT to justify the current practice.

We have a welcome time about 20 - 30 mins after Pre-school starts, but until that time, the children are free to choose from any of the activities laid out, or get their own out. The only thing we don't do is have the outside area available as that is the way that parents arrive and leave, so it would be very difficult to manage.

The system you're talking about sounds terrible.

I think I would be out looking for a new nursery. Dont stick with it just because you think your child is settled, find a better one and your child will be even happier.

oh dear god :/ I'm going to go with TiggyD's categorization. How on earth do they get them to sit still for that length of time? A letter is in order here methinks.

The practice you are talking about it not a good one and I am sure the children are not liking it as well. If you have already had a talk with the head of the preschool then shift your child to some other preschool.