Choosing a nursery

We asked how much time the children got to spend outside and whether they had free flow access to outdoor space or if it was only at planned time. It’s good to watch how the children interact with the staff as that can tell you a lot. We used cloth nappies with our first. We would send her to nursery in a cloth nappy, then when the staff changed her they would bag up the cloth nappy to send home at the end of the day and use disposables when she was at nursery as they were provided and included in the cost. The children at our daughters nursery don’t have access to any technology other than when they have music on for dancing sometimes. They don’t have any electronic toys or anything like that. The staff use a tablet/app to track meals, nappy changes and development goals which link to a parent portal app we have, so we can see what’s she’s been doing during the day.

You might like Montessori nurseries. They usually let the children be more independent and adapt activities to them/individually. They are also more likely to have less "gadgets". For clothes nappies, maybe you can give the bags to store dirty nappies and provide clean nappies and reusable wipes, if that's what you want to be used. Ask them if they are ok with that.

I think it all depends on what you want. I chose a nursery based on how well they set them up for school life. Where they help with clearing away, have a routine and the resources are changed frequently. I worked at another nursery where they didn’t have this and the children ran wild. There were no rules and I was the one told off when I watched another child punch another and I intervened and asked the child to say sorry- that wasn’t allowed at this nursery as children can’t do wrong so are taught to say whoopsies if they hurt someone else. All the nurseries I viewed didn’t let the kids have technology, some of them made everyone including staff lock their phones away before being allowed in with the children! But feel free to write notes as you go round and you can always view more than once to make sure it’s perfect for you.

Thank you, I will write down questions and points to look out for. Montessori, Steiner is the approach we are going with, but sadly we live in a small town with only a few nurseries around, so very limited, I will be asking about what approach they use as well. I have heard about tablets that staff use and parent apps. I’ve heard that children are made to pose for photos to show mummy and daddy what they are up to on the app and staff are constantly on those tablets. I would much rather not have the app and just talk to the staff at the end of the day really, so they spend more time with children. I will write a few questions about cloth nappies as well. I didn’t think about nappies that nursery can supply, but I would still much rather use cloth, even if they supply nappies.

Maybe ask if they have a forest school? Our nursery had plans for one when our son started and it's now up and running. We were also on cloth nappies but none of the nurseries we viewed were that comfortable using them. I think that would come down to individual staff members. One thing that was important to me was food. A lot of nurseries outsource their food via Zebedees which isn't necessarily bad but wasn't what I wanted my child to eat and the nurseries were not flexible about adjusting for my son. He's not on a special diet but I didn't want him having sugar, cakes or ice cream which seemed to be on their menus. If you're not a techy family then check permissions about posting pics of your child on the nursery social media. I'm generally happy with our nursery as I also realised no where is perfect, just work out what are your top priorities. Lastly, if your child hates it, no matter how ideal the nursery is, you'll know about it and want to take them out! Their happiness is what matters most!

@Tam thank you, definitely lots of good points. We are not on solids yet, but I will be asking about their menus, as we are veggie. Are issue is we live in a small town, so very limited for nurseries. From what I’ve heard, I’m really not sure about any of our options, but we are still going in open minded