Nursery settling in period

I have joined a UK family members club and the crèche has a stay and play session to allow new children to settle into the space. On my 5th session there was 1 member of staff there who we’d see the last time and she stated a safe guarding policy which differed from how the previous sessions operated only this time it was just me and my baby. Firstly she said there’s no one in the room but if other children come in me and my baby whole have to go into a different room due to safe guarding. - OK fine but this was not mentioned nor observed last time and on the other occasions me and other parents and other children were all in the main room together - if my child isn’t getting comfortable in the main room isn’t that going against of the purpose of the stay and play session if we’re segregated So it seems strange she’s mentioning it now. However - let’s just say the safe guarding policy is being adhered to NOW and this is how it’s going to move forward. Fine - I accept.

15 mins later I can see my LO is getting on fine so I opt to leave her in there. I come out and inform the same woman. She suggests I don’t leave my LO in there for the rest of the session and come back 15 mins before the end. She also reiterates if other children come in my LO will need to go into another room. That’s when I asked her why all the segregation and she went on to explain safe guarding. Realised we aren’t going to get anywhere so I left the convo and went for a coffee but decided to come back very quickly and ditch the coffee as she wasn’t filling me with confidence that she knew what she wasn’t talking about or that she would care for my child properly. So wondering - what happens in normal nurseries when parents are in? I would have assumed everyone plays together and are watched over by the staff.

At our nursery, if you opted to stay for the settling in session, you just watched on the camera, not in the same room as any children. I chose to just have a coffee on the bench outside, so I was close by if needed.

So your little one isn’t allowed to interact with other kids and has to be separated? This sounds so weird. There could be a child in danger who goes there or even a celebrity kid or something but I can’t see why the children couldn’t mix with your child? The whole idea of nursery is to be with other kids right? On our settling in, I went in, I played with my daughter and the other kids for the first session, and half of the second before I then left her there. There was no segregation and I was always with a staff member. I imagine they’ve got a case where they can’t say much to explain but they really should at least tell you that there is a current situation etc etc even if no detail so you can kind of understand. I’d be speaking with the manager because, you’re right, the kids and staff would be together and not separated. Even if they can’t tell you, they should be able to explain why your kid has to be alone. Hope you can sort it x

@Ani I think this woman saw no one else around and took the opportunity to take advantage of the situation. I call BS on each part of it. I’m sure if I come late on another day there will be parents in there with children. I’m going to email the management team for them to review the conversations. They have cctv where we were so they can hear it for themselves.