what do you want from a nursery?

[beachbummum]

I am a childminder at the moment and am trying to set up my own nursery. I would like any comments on what you want from a nursery and if your child is at a nursery what you like ao what you would improve.

plus i would like to add.... save during pregnancy?? are you having a laugh? I may be out numbered here but when I found out (mine were not planned), we lived to our means, very comfortably mind you, but what came in, went back out again - when you don't have kids that doesn't matter....when I got pregnant I didn't suddenly have a payrise to allow me to save! In fact, who doesn't go out and buy things for their new arrival, thus increasing your outgoings and further decreasing your ability to save.

To top it all off, I gave birth at 6 and half months, so that gave me what, 4 months to save...thats hardly gonna pay for living expenses when pay is halved after 6 weeks and SMP is only £100 a week....Titchy, you must have a wealthy fella or a very small mortgage, in which case, u is very lucky!

Meely2 - some of us don't even get half pay plus SMP, just SMP. So it means living on £102 per week. And as mentioned before, for anyone who is self employed, they get nothing.

Wow. Haven't read all the responses so sorry if there's some repetition but:

-Good home made food (inc veggie) not just tinned
-Staff of varying ages
-Male staff as well as female would be positive
-A variety of activities & minimal (or no)TV use
-Outdoor and indoor areas (obviously safe & secure)
-Trips & visits to places of interest
-Clear info on what activities/topics the children will be learning about
-Reports/evidence of what they've been doing (pictures, progress books, models etc..)
-Good communication between parents & staff - e.g. -ocassional parents evenings or time where staff are available
Honesty - mistakes happen but can be worked around if staff are honest & not defensive

Lunarsea - I have to admit, my company are quite good for mat. pay but it still isnt great, especially as if you have babies early, like me, before mat leave officially started, then your mat leave starts on that day instead, hence I was on half pay before they even came home, so I only had 3 months with them anyway, as I had to go back to work when half pay stopped and I was only getting SMP. If they'd have been born at full term I would have had 5 months with them...not really fair me thinks, but hey, we is over that hump now and I love being back at work and talking to my boys about their day in the evening, we have such a fab time.

Anyway we are kinda going off the point of this thread, sorry beachbummum!

all of your messages have been great.

i am going to take children from 6weeks old. i know this is very yonge but lots of parents don't have a choice but to go back to work. i hope that i can create a nursery that creates a home from home enviroment. the children will be split into 4 diffrent age group rooms
6weeks - 1year
1year - 2.5years
2.5years - 3.3years(term after 3rd birthday)
3.3 years - 5years
the children will all come together in at breakfast,lunch and tea times.
i also want to set up a lounge in the nursery this will have sofas, bean bags, cusions etc. this room will be used when the whole nursery comes together for singing, stories, play etc. this means that all the children will mix with children of diffrent ages.

your points have been very helpfu. at the moment i am trying to find a suitable propaty and am writing my business plan. i am pleased to say that most of your points i had already included in my plan. this made me feel great as i am doing things that parents want.
i hope to finish the Business plan by the end of the week. i have never written a business plan before so it has been a new experiance for me. once the Business plan has been sent to the bank i can consentrate on finding a suitable propety.

Sounds great Beachbum. Just one thought about the lounge idea: like most kids, my 3 yr old lad just loves jumping off the sofa & from sofa to sofa. Fine when he's the only small person in the room but a total nightmare since his baby sister arrived.

I'm not saying proper furniture is a complete no no but I don't think I've ever seen any in nurseries and that's probably why - too much like an obstacle course with potential for kids to hurt themselves/each other. Like the bean bags idea though.

Our nursery has sofas, and it seems to work ok as long as the rule that sofas are for sitting on is adhered to. The kids know it, and I've never seen one stand on or jump off the sofas.

Lunarsea - sounds good. No reason why they shouldn't behave with sofas I guess. I'm probably just a bit slack when it comes to telling my lad off in that respect - we need new sofas anyway!

as a childminder i have never let the children jump on the sofas. i will have the rule that sofas are for sitting on.

I know we've prolly stopped posting on here - but there was an incident at my nursery involving one of my two and I think it highlights a few things.

It was lunchtime and all the bigger babies were being fed, bar a few that were sleeping - my two included. They are fed (if on solids) in the toddler room next door to baby room (is all open plan, but separeted by a few tables and play houses). It would appear that no one was actually in the baby room although they could see the babies from where they were. An older baby woke up hungry but there were no high chairs free so she was left to play for a bit...she got bored and crawled over to Arthur and scratched his face (not on purpose obviously) but she's left a hell of a mark.

So I suppose what I would like to see (and apparently this should never have happened anyway, they should never be left alone), staff in every room, regardless of time of day or even if the other room can be seen from the one they are in. They need to be able to intervene in situations like this, it's not like arthur could have crawled away or moved away from her hands.

So constant supervision especially if mixed age babies are in the same room. Another option, is put older babies in cots for their naps, so if they wake they can't toddle off and cause havoc until someone gets them up.

Thats it really...

if children are not in cots sleeping someone should be in the room with them as accidents can happen as you know.
i intend to have babies sleeping in cots and toddlers sleeping on matrases that fold and a member of staff will be with them all of the time.