Management round table: should parents have the say on sleep?

David Wright – Paint Pots Pre-School and Nursery

This is a difficult situation which requires diplomacy and a sense of balance between the child’s needs and the parents’ wishes. 

As part of  getting to know  a child, we ask about his/her sleep routines at home. We also  work with parents to set a common expectation regarding care, with a primary focus on the needs of each individual child. During the child’s settling sessions with us, we liaise closely with parents to provide a consistent pattern of care between home and our setting. In most cases, the establishment of this partnership builds trust and sets a shared agreement on what is best for each child. Where a carer insists that we are to ignore a child’s clear needs, in order to satisfy their guidance – for example,  ‘my child must never sleep in the afternoon’, we would explain how we must respond to the child’s needs and negotiate a resolution that recognises both the carers’ motivation, such as trying to get their child to sleep all through the night, and their child’s need for physical rest during the day. Sometimes, a shortish ‘power nap’ can provide this, without compromising the child’s subsequent ability to sleep all night. In this case, it is a question of managing the balance and maintaining the overriding principle of meeting each child’s individual needs.  

Nathan Archer – Lincolnshire Montessori

As a setting we subscribe to Maria Montessori's philosophy of 'Follow the child'. To this end, we take children's lead as to when they sleep and how long for, and this is enabled and encouraged by the sleep baskets we have which encourage early independence. Importantly, we explain this to parents on induction to the nursery, so although we have had requests from parents about how long children should sleep for, we are clear that we would not wake a child up to meet an adult imposed sleep routine. Whilst we prioritise parent partnership, our foremost responsibility is the child's wellbeing and we would encourage other nurseries to do the same. 

Laura Robshaw  - NDNA 

Although it is important to recognise parents’ knowledge of their child, the setting’s priority must be meeting the individual needs of the child and ensuring their well-being.

Childcare providers should have sleep policies in place, which state the benefits of sleep and the setting’s values and processes around sleep, for example whether or not they wake sleeping children. The policies should be shared with parents when they join the nursery, so they understand the process and sign up to that way of working.

However I understand sleep can be a sticky issue between settings and some parents. If a child is still requiring sleep time I would suggest the key person and the parents sit down at regular intervals to discuss how long the parents, and how long the setting, thinks the child needs to sleep. If there is disagreement between the parents and setting, the key person should explain the reasons behind their recommendations; for example difficulty settling the child if they do not appear to need to sleep or observations about the negative impact lack of sleep has on the child’s behaviour. It is also important to acknowledge that children may need different amounts of sleep when at nursery and when at home due to different routines and levels of activity.

 Round table members: David Wright, owner, Paint Pots Pre-School and Nursery Southampton, Nathan Archer, development manager, Lincolnshire Montessori, Laura Robshaw,  association quality manager at the NDNA