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URGENT!!!! visiting a nusery tomorrow what do I ask???
in Baby
Hey
I started looking at nursery's this morning for Amy - i go back to work end of March Amy will be 9 months old
Anyway just did few emails and had a responsed about hour later asking if we wanted to visit tomorrow morning!!!
Really excited but no idea what I need to ask????
Had no idea it would happen so quick
Help!!!!
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I started looking at nursery's this morning for Amy - i go back to work end of March Amy will be 9 months old
Anyway just did few emails and had a responsed about hour later asking if we wanted to visit tomorrow morning!!!
Really excited but no idea what I need to ask????
Had no idea it would happen so quick
Help!!!!
xxxxxxxx
0
Replies
Web Ed Nicola
I want to know about the school run if Alf will be on that and how long he'll be out for.
I want to know about the staff, qualifications, how many days they work, if they're left alone with them etc. ANd the turn over of staff how long do people stay and where do they get them from-is it agency people or work experience or what?
I would want to know about whether I leave the buggy there and they use that or...
I would want to know if they sleep at anytime they want or does he have to be tired to be put down for a kip?
Do you have to pay even when they don't go-one I've contacted do to keep the place.
Food and nappies, wipes etc-do you provide for the days they're there?
Good luck and hope you find a lovely place for your lo x
Ive just looked on Ofsted website and they had an appauling report in Nov 08 all inadequate I mean everything was bad!! No wonder i got a phone call straight away they are probably desperate for children!!! Anyway ill go and have a look as it was recommended by someone at baby group and she seemed happy with them - but there report....oh dear!
Ofsted reports can be really great but be wary of them - a nursery may be fantastic at caring for the children but not have written evidence to back up thier good work. At the same time one that gets a great report may not be what your looking for - if that makes sense.
You need to go and visit to get a feel for the place - do you like the people and the atmosphere?
No offence to anyone .... but I would also look at the ages of the staff - a nice mix of yound and older staff will give lots of enthusiasm and experienced staff.
i trained and worked in a day nursery for 5 years and its a fab nursery they have a super cssiw (ofsted for wales)report and they also have the investors in people at a 2 star (the highest is 3)which only 1 other nursery in wales have ......so if iwas u looking tomorrow i would ask the following
staff ratio adult-children? (national guidelines are 1-3 aged 0-2
1-4 aged 2-3
1-8 aged 3&)
what food they provide and how much tinned/sachet things with salt they have in?
will they follow your routine as your baby knows it(jacks nursery so this)?
do they provide nappies/wipes/milk?
price list?
ages of the children in the same room? (some nurseries put babies and toddlers together but i personally dont like this)
how they deal with behavior issues(obviously not now but as your child gets older)
hmm cant think any more at the moment ,do forgive me i have a baby mush brain lol ...........i hope this helps and u just need to go with your gut instinct believe me if its not right even if they say all the right answers you as a mummy will know....let us know how u get on xxxxxxxxx
Also if the kids have Key workers or everyone looks after everyone. I find it more reassuring that there's only one lady who mainly looks after Harry although they all muck in together.
Routine is a biggie. Harry's nursery said they follow each childs individual routine which i knew was rubbisdh so i nagged them until they gave in and gave me a really rough timetable they use. It helped to settle harry into their sort of routine so it didn't upset his days at home.
And i totally agree with Vanilla about the gut instinct thing. I saw 5 different nurseries and i only liked two. The most expencive one - a teddies Bupa nursery made me feel so uncomfortable about everything i left halfway through the tour!
xxxx
Also, what they do is they complete a 'journal' which you can read when you get home which tells you what your baby has done during the day e.g. song time, what toys they played with etc. and tells you what they had for lunch and how much of it she ate and they also write down when they had naps and for how long etc. so if you dont get chance to talk to the key worker I know roughly how her day has gone.
They also have an office with a window looking into the nursery room but which is mirrored on the other side so I can pop in at any time and look into the baby room to see how shes getting on but without upsetting her and without the staff in her room knowing I'm there which I think is really good. I popped in a bit earlier the other day to collect her and went into the office to pay my bill and looked into the baby room to see her and she was getting a cuddle from one of the care workers.
I agree with one of the other posters on here that its best to look at a couple of nurseries and you will know when you find the right nursery as you get a gut feeling its right, I certainly did.
xx
Definately ask how closely they follow your routine - this was important to us and our nursery follow coles loose routine as much as they can - although they did say that often the lo's sort of drift into a similar room.
Definately find out the ages of the babies your lo will be with - and keep an eye on it too. A whole bunch of 6month olds just started in cole's room and I did ask how many lo's of his age were still there because I was worried he would be overlooked with the more dependant lo's. Its worth finding out how they seperate the under 2's and when they move them up to the next age gap and whether they go with a friend. Our nursery is good cause they keep the roughly 15month and under together then the 15+-2 years together but they have a room in between where they sometimes let them mix so its not quite so bad when they move them up.
Discipline is a good one to ask too - that was what I was worried about.
Napping arrangements are worth checking too - if your lo has a comfort toy or blanket will they use them? do they change sheets between child? where do they sleep. Ours has some big old silver cross prams, and some cots and in the bigger kids room the cots are in a side room so its darker - and they asked me whether he'd be happier in the pram or the cot.
Also watch how the staff are with the kids. The lady who showed us round did keep interrupting talking to us to deal with kids and thats good - it means that the kids come first. What do they do with the kids during hte day, do they have any outdoor play, do they have a schedule, where do they feed them - can you see in there?
Ofsted reports are worth checking out but also I know from some teacher friends that a satisfactory report is ok too. I read the one from my nursery, questioned them about the points that had been raised and then read the new one when it had been inspected again.
Definately find out about settling in time and what they do - ours said we could bring him for as many visits as we felt he needed and I think he had about 5.
See how the staff are with your lo, and check out where they change them - we did that inadvertantly as Cole needed changing! Clever boy letting us have a peek lol.
Also - how do they seperate differetn childrens stuff? Ours have baskets with each childs name on to put their food/snacks etc in, and any food they keep in the fridge goes in a seperate bag or if i leave a jar for the next day they stick a label on with his name. They also have a seperate basket each in the changing rooms for their own nappies and wipes. If you use reusables its worth asking if they will use them.
Probably worth finding out how many part and f ull timers there are - if there are more full timers it'll be better continuety of care - and do they assign a keyworker to the babies? Cole has a keyworker and she's fulltime and she's definately his favourite out of all of them - its nice knowing that there is one person who is doing the bulk of the care rather than just whoever is around.
Sorry for the essay lol! hope it helps
Thank you mummythomas for posting and hope you find a good nursery for Amy xx
Feeling nervous actually although the one going to today had a REALLY bad ofsted things like no first aider and over flowing nappy bins to even leaving babies on their own!!!!! but have managed to look round one tomorrow which had 'outstanding' in everything! so i am prepared with questions and will let you know !!!
thanks again xxxx