Choosing a Good Nursery or Preschool
It can be a massive decision for any parent. Which school should a parent choose for their kid or kids? Here is a list of a few basic things that you could be looking for when making your choice.
Make sure you visit in person as opposed to simply trusting pictures and words on a website or brochure. Anyone can fake and airbrush their profile, whereas it is somewhat more difficult to fake what the day to day running of thr place looks like. As an even better gauge of what the place is like it can be best to turn up unannounced so they are much less likely to be ready to put on a show for you.
First of all, are the children themselves happy? Would you really like to send your kids to a place that they are unlikely to be happy? Of course not. I am not talking about laughing all the time, simply are the kids looking content in their environment.
Is it a very noisy environment? Although it can be loads of fun to have periods of noise and fun, but is there also the opportunity for rest, should your child require some peace and quiet.
Is the playing environment clean and reasonably tidy? This is to not only ensure safety, but to aid children?s concentration. It is sometimes hard for children to concentrate at the best of times, but having toys scattered endlessly across the floor does not really help anyone!
Staff turnover? Is there consistency with the staff in the school? If there is a high turnover of staff, you should ask the question of why this is the case. Apart from the kids having a lack of consistency in the adults that they look to, there could also be slightly deeper problems and reasons as to why a regular change in staff is occurring. There could, for example, be low morale within the school leading to workers leaving regularly.
How does the place 'feel'? Trust your gut feeling when you visit a nursery or playgroup. One of the worst outcomes possible would be not only something going wrong, but also you yourself blaming yourself for something that you knew was not quite right. In a lot of cases first impressions do matter. Partly because if you are coming from 'normal' into an environment that is different, you are going to more accurately notice the change. Whereas when you have been there for a while you will get used to those differences and they will become more 'normal'.
How do they resolve discipline issues? Although you may not see any issues while there, it is worth at least asking how they do resolve issues when they do arise. The general behaviour of the children could well show the effectiveness of discipline in the school. If the children are doing a lot of pushing and pulling, snatching and grabbing, then I would suggest that they are unlikely to have an effective discipline strategy.
Happy hunting, make sure that you find somewhere that you are really happy with, and therefore not going to spend the day worrying about your child while they are there!
