What to Look for When Choosing a Nursery
We know how difficult it can feel choosing the right nursery for your child. With so much to consider for yourself and your little one, and lots of nurseries to choose from, it can often be very overwhelming. Whilst you’ll always get the best understanding of a nursery during a showround, there are some things you can consider in advance to help you prepare and feel like you’re making the best decision for your family. Practical considerations like location, cost and availability are particularly important, but perhaps equally so are other factors such as the nursery’s values, teaching style, communication and more.
To help you find your perfect nursery, we’re sharing 5 things to look out for during your search, as well as a little insight into how we do things here at Muddy Boots!
Learning/Teaching Styles
Whilst it’s not hugely common for parents to have in-depth knowledge of the EYFS curriculum and what your child will be learning, it is important to know how your child will be learning so that you can support them at home. Understanding the difference between Nursery and School education methods can be really beneficial, particularly if the nursery you’re looking at adopts a different approach.
The way staff teach your child can impact their learning and development in different ways. At Muddy Boots, we adopt a holistic approach, focusing on child-led learning. Through play and observation, children can develop their own unique personalities and interests and have their learning methods catered towards this. Not only does this offer lots of opportunities for personal development, but it also increases their mental and physical skillset outside of traditional ‘topic-led’ learning used in schools. There are benefits to both methods of teaching, but we believe, and research has shown, that the child-led play approach is the best way to capture their imagination and engage children in purposeful learning.
Parent-Staff Relationships and Support
As you probably already know, it’s important to get to know the members of staff who will be looking after your child, in order for you to feel safe knowing they are well cared for at nursery. You also want to feel supported by staff, and feel as though they have yours and your child’s best interest in mind.
Our staff at Muddy Boots know the children and parents at nursery very well, developing strong relationships with them through our ‘key worker’ system. We also use the Famly app to regularly communicate with parents and carers, updating them throughout the days their child is at nursery with all the things they get up to, as well as nappy changes, mealtimes and more.
Not only do our staff build excellent relationships with children and families, they also develop great relationships with each other. We know how important it is to nurture the wellbeing of our staff. We do this through supportive team meetings, wellbeing activities, and our weekly Friday Pulse where staff can evaluate their working week, and share thanks and celebrations with their team members. All of our staff work hard to foster a positive environment for themselves, their colleagues, and of course your children. After all, a happy team means happy children, and happy children means happy families!
Welcoming Atmosphere
A friendly and welcoming team of staff is a must when looking for a nursery, but the physical environment of the nursery should also feel inviting for young children. Nurseries often ensure this through displays and decorations in the buildings, but you can also observe it through the quality of equipment/toys and the overall cleanliness of the environment. There’s often a lot happening when you view a nursery and you’ll already have lots of questions on your mind, but any serious issues with the nature and feel of the settings are generally very clear and hard to miss. Remember, nurseries may naturally be a little messy now and again - it's all part and parcel of having children, but keep an eye out for any obvious concerns.
When attending a showround at Muddy Boots, you get to see the day-to-day life of children, what activities they do, how they interact with staff, etc. giving you a little taste of what the nursery might look like for you and your child. We give you a whistlestop tour of all the rooms across the nursery facilities, focusing on the room your child will be starting in, meaning not only do you see where your child will begin but also where they will be as they get older! Through this, Muddy Boots (hopefully) becomes a place you can really picture your child being and enjoying every day life.
Safe & Engaging Outdoor Play
Many nurseries have adequate outdoor spaces for some aspects of learning, or have access to spaces where children can be supervised during play. Whatever the area may be, these outdoor spaces must be safe and engaging for children. This is emphasised even more when a nursery, like ours, has a focus on outdoor learning.
While outdoor play is a benefit in itself, it’s important for the facilities to be safe and engaging for your child. Our child to staff ratios mean all children are looked after indoors and outdoors, and weather appropriate accommodations are made to suit seasonal outdoor play when necessary. We also have a maintenance team ready and on hand to help with and fix any issues that may arise across the nurseries both indoors and outdoors, as well as to introduce new equipment that reflect children’s interests.
Every day at Muddy Boots is different, and we keep play engaging by following children’s interests and providing opportunities for them to venture out into the local community! This is fantastic for children as they get to experience a change of scenery no matter how much time they spend outdoors.
Parent Feedback and Nursery Response
The best way to find out what any potential nursery is like, is through reading parent feedback; having likeminded people to refer to who are in the same position as you is incredibly helpful! The easiest way to find parent feedback is through review sites like Google Reviews, as well as nursery based pages such as DayNurseries. We’re proud to have lots of consistent positive feedback from our families at Muddy Boots, which parents often share on our Google Review pages!
“For me the most important factor in nursery choice is the staff who will be looking after your children. Having had 4 years of great experiences prior to L starting at nursery, this time around having new faces has been just as good. When it’s already tough to leave your baby, it makes it so much easier knowing they are happy with those you’re leaving them with.” - Parent, Muddy Boots Stamford Bridge
“Both my children have attended Muddy Boots and we couldn't have had a better experience. Both kids have loved all their key workers through the years and all the staff they've spent time with, the staff are caring and really get to know each child individually. I recommend Muddy Boots to everyone looking for a nursery.” - Parent, Muddy Boots Morley
We also feature testimonial videos on our website, meaning there are lots of different ways you can hear what parents have to say about Muddy Boots.
How do we get these reviews? Every week a group of families are randomly selected to submit their feedback to our 5 minute parent survey. It’s crucial for our parents to let us know what they think of Muddy Boots because their feedback shapes their nursery experience! We take parent feedback seriously, and always aim to respond to any queries or concerns addressed both in person and through our survey.
Value Alignment
While there are many things to consider when choosing your perfect nursery (more than we can mention in this blog) you ultimately have to look for whether your chosen nursery aligns with your values and what you want for your child. It’s an incredibly tough decision to make, but our staff at Muddy Boots are on hand to make the process as worry-free as possible, helping you to make the right decisions for your child. After all, many of our staff members are parents themselves and have been through the same decision making process. With your best interest in mind, we want to make the journey into nursery the best that it can be for you and your child.
If you’re looking for a nursery and want to find out more about Muddy Boots, visit our contact page to book your showround, and a member of our team will get in touch.
Remember, you aren’t alone in this decision and, while it can be difficult, choosing a nursery for your child is a very rewarding experience, so keep going!
Team Muddy Boots x
