How to choose the right day nursery for your child

No matter what age your child begins nursery, choosing the right nursery for them is no easy task. Knowing what to look for, and what to ask when choosing and visiting a nursery for the first time, will help make the decision easier for you and your family.

Questions to ask when choosing a nursery

Asking questions is an important step when choosing a nursery for your little one. Questions can help you understand the nursery’s practices and help the nursery get to know your needs and those of your child.

To help you, here are some frequently asked questions we receive at Kids Planet:

Are all staff DBS checked?
What are the staff-to-children ratios in a particular room?
How do you maintain consistent quality across your nursery?
How does the nursery support my child’s learning and development?
How does the nursery track my child’s progress and report back?
What safety procedures are in place to safeguard my child?
How do you spark my child’s interests and imagination?
How will you prepare my child for primary school?
How can I check on my child during the day whist at nursery?
Do you follow the same routines as my child experiences at home?
What is your outdoor provision like? How often will my child be outside?
What SEND support (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) do you provide?
What are your opening hours – do you offer early drop offs and late picks ups?

children laying in the grass

Consider your needs when choosing a nursery

So, you’ve found the perfect nursery for your child, but does it meet your needs as a busy parent? When choosing the perfect nursery, finding a setting that suits your needs is just as important as catering to your child’s requirements.

One common and important factor to consider when choosing a nursery is its location. Many parents choose to have their nursery close to work or home depending on what suits their routine best, and some also try to choose a nursery close to the family should they need to arrange a pickup with a significant family member.

Kids Planet has over 100 nurseries across the UK and with our easy-to-use Find a Nursery tool, you’ll be able to find a nursery in the perfect location.

We all want the best for our children and having a look at previous nursery Ofsted reports and parental-peer nursery reviews on websites such as www.daynurseries.co.uk is a great way to gauge how good the nursery is from a non-biased point of view.

Kids Planet nurseries strive to achieve the best Ofsted reports for all our nursery settings and are proud to earn Outstanding ratings for many of our nurseries. To see the Ofsted rating of our nurseries, use our Find a Nursery tool and search your postcode and radius. Nurseries that do not have an Ofsted rating are awaiting their Ofsted review and you can contact the nursery for more information on that.

Alongside Ofsted reports, peer-review is important, and a good nursery should frequently reach out to the parents for feedback to ensure they’re always providing the best for a child. We carry out parent surveys throughout the year to understand and improve parent’s experiences across the group. A quality nursery should always encourage parents to provide honest opinions of their experiences and be open to sharing the ways they plan to make improvements where necessary.

The environment

An enabling environment provides children with the space and resources to play, explore, and learn – a key factor in supporting a child’s learning and development. At Kids Planet, our environments – inside and out – are enhanced regularly to reflect a child’s needs and interests. When you visit a nursery for the first time, look around – are children playing conventionally with plastic, shiny, purpose made ‘toys’, or do you notice children playing freely and imaginatively with wooden baskets and metal bowls, boxes of pinecones and logs? These ‘loose parts’ support invention, problem solving and offer a sense of wonder to children.

To read more about the benefits of loose parts play here, click here.

Indoor or outdoor?

Modern life is busy! Providing children with the opportunity to amaze and delight in the outdoors every day, at their own pace is important. When you’re looking around a nursery, make sure you have time to view the outdoor provision. Is it filled to the brim with rich sensory and learning experiences? Are practitioners attentive and engaged and dressed, and are the children and practitioners in appropriate clothing to enable them to embrace all weather?

Finally…

and most importantly – trust your gut instinct. An often overlooked and ignored method of gauging the sincerity and trustworthiness of a nursery and the people involved is by listening to your parental instinct.

You know your child better than anyone!

Click here to find your nearest nursery.

For more information on the what Kids Planet can offer to your little one please download our prospectus: Kids Planet Brochure