Would it bother you if you dc nursery had no outside facility?

[minniedot]

I've been to look at a pre-school for ds this morning, he'll be 2 in August. Was thinking about putting him in for two mornings a week. The pre-school is in the next village to me so quite handy and is set in a church hall.

It had a nice atmosphere and the ladies who run it seemed lovely, but my only bugbear is that there is nowhere for the children to play outside.

Am I nit picking or is this a genuine concern?

TBH I love being outside with the children (I'm a chilminder who also works pre-school ) and even for 2 days a week the pre-school should offer outside play whatever age? what does the ofsted report say about outside play then? did you ask what they offer for this for your sons age?

Also for only 6 months, I would hang on and spend 2 mornings a week spoiling my ds they grow up so fast! my dd starts school full time in Sept ekkk my baby

Berryred, I used to work in a pre-school and I thought that children had to have access to outside play

Unless you have a reason to send him earlier (ie new baby on the way, I put my DS1 into nursery for two mornings a week age 18 months a few months before my twins were due so he would be settled well before his world was shattered by the twins' arrival!!), I would wait and send him age 2.5 to the other one.

(interfering slightly here) From September according to the new Eraly Years Foundation Stage all preschool settings are expected to offer outdoor play. This is a huge problem for some groups, even going to the park with 3 year olds can be problematic cos of ratios etc. It'll be interestng to see what Ofsted say about those groups that don't have super-duper playgrounds.

Agree that indoor play on a slide etc can be almost as much fun- and all year round!

happystory, I mentioned EYFS further up the thread as I can't see how you can comply with it and have no outdoor space either.

Surely it is not to do with having playground facilities though, outdoor activities can be anything - noise walks, chalking, digging, playground rhymes, bikes and trikes, drawing those types of things so lack of large playground equipment shouldn't be too problematic but lack of access to outdoor space should, as I understand it. These activities should be all year round with dress appropriate to the weather.

I agree, it will be very interesting to hear what Ofsted say.

I had a look at the EYFS yesterday. I'm pretty sure it said that if a setting did not have an outdoor area, they had to have access to an area which could be used every day.

I'll see if I can find it at work tomorrow.

Problem solved for now.

Just had a call from a ' lovely ' pre-school with outdoor play area that has had a cancellation.

Visiting next week.