Nursery Toys

smk77

I'm really just after some opinions on this one so would be grateful for some comments:

My 1 yr old son goes to a private nursery for a couple of afternoons a week. Each day he is there they write a report in his book and send it home with him. Last week they sent it home with a sponsorship form in it as he is going to be doing a sponsored bounce on a bouncy castle...a what?? He's 1 year old!! Surely he should be old enough to actually understand what's going on!

Anyway, the sponsorship form is from a fairly large children's charity. However, my wife spoke to the manager and was told that they were raising money to buy new toys for the nursery. This raises 2 issues:

1. In my opinion a private nursery should not be raising money to buy toys. It's a profit making business! If they don't make enough money from the fees to buy new toys then they should increase the fees!

2. They are using a sponsorship form for a children's charity that rasies money for children with severe mental and physical disabilities and life-limiting illnesses. The nursery is clearly misrepresenting. I don't mind donating spare money to charity but not a profit making business. Even if there has been a mix up and the money is going to the charity they're not actually registered as a charity here in Scotland and therefore are not allowed to raised money here!

Any thoughts?

skintchick

Contact the charity and query the validity of the association with the nursery. Get your facts straight then speak to the nursery.

mspig

I understand a nursery trying to raise funds to get new toys as they might think in the best interest of their fee paying customers that they don't want to raise the fee, but if they are stating that they are doing the sponsored bounce for charity and are clearly not then that is clearly not acceptable and needs to be dealt with.

However as for a 1year old doing a sponsored bounce i think that, that is far too young, and should be the nursery staff doing something for sponsor not the little tots.

smk77

mspig wrote: »

I understand a nursery trying to raise funds to get new toys as they might think in the best interest of their fee paying customers that they don't want to raise the fee, but if they are stating that they are doing the sponsored bounce for charity and are clearly not then that is clearly not acceptable and needs to be dealt with.

However as for a 1year old doing a sponsored bounce i think that, that is far too young, and should be the nursery staff doing something for sponsor not the little tots.

But surely with any business you need to take into account the replacing anything that wears out when deciding your price. i.e. the nursery should be setting £X aside in their budget for the replacement toy? So, if their business was run correctly then there should be no need to raise fees.

I can understand pre-school nurseries and schools raising money for toys or sports equipment etc because government funding may be lacking etc but i'd expect a private nursery who is in control of their funds to be able to buy when needed.

He'll enjoy the bounce...except, he won't get to do it if he doesn't hand in a form...

smk77

skintchick wrote: »

Contact the charity and query the validity of the association with the nursery. Get your facts straight then speak to the nursery.

The problem is I don't want to make a fuss about it. After all, they look after my son. I'm probably best to just ignore it although that might not go down too well and my son won't be allowed to bounce!

skintchick

Then why are you asking? Did you want one of us to call up for you?

prettypoppyknickers

i'm not sure about your nursery but when my son did a sponsored what ever i never got sponsers because i and a few mums agreed the same as you and my son still did the bounce anyway because it would be a bad school not to include a child just because they didn't get sponsers how do they know that you just didn't forget the form the day of the bounce?

smk77

skintchick wrote: »

Then why are you asking? Did you want one of us to call up for you?

read the 1st post. I'm only after opinions. i.e. Do I:

a. say something
b. sponsor
c. Ignore
d. other....

smk77

prettypoppyknickers wrote: »

i'm not sure about your nursery but when my son did a sponsored what ever i never got sponsers because i and a few mums agreed the same as you and my son still did the bounce anyway because it would be a bad school not to include a child just because they didn't get sponsers how do they know that you just didn't forget the form the day of the bounce?

Thanks for your useful advice. They'd be a bit cruel not letting him go on!

Dormouse

I can certainly see your point, OP, it does sound strange. If you don't want to make a big fuss, do you want to just casually ask what the charity connection is? It doesn't sound right that they're using the charity's name for their own gain?

Although I can also see that, if you're otherwise happy with the nursery, you could just ignore it. I can't imagine your son at his age will suffer too much if they don't let him bounce, so it's your call.

Silverbird

I've got nothing further to add to what's already been said, but just thought I'd mention that I work for Orthopaedic Surgeons at a hospital and around 90% of all broken arms and legs in children are caused by bouncy castle and trampolining injuries. The Surgeons think they should all be banned. 1 does seem extremely young to be participating in this.