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Slippers Or Shoes?


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Can you tell me if your children wear slippers when at nursery or do they stay in shoes? I have recently taken over a nursery and have decided to change their long standing 'slipper' policy to shoes.

 

The main reason for doing this is to fufill the EYFS requirements of having free flow play between the inside and outside environments.

 

We have two cloakrooms (as we are in an old school building) and because we have a rather large garden when we operate free flow we can really only do it in a fenced off area of the garden which only one of the cloakrooms ahs access to. So this means that the chidlren in the far corridor have to carry their wellie boots through the nursery and change into them in the other corrdicor and the same when they come back in - this is very confusing for the little ones.

 

If they had shoes on all the time then they could move between the two areas far more independently as the area is concrete so they wouln't need to change their footwear!

 

I would really appreciate your views on this as to be honest it has caused some upset amongst some of the parents!!

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If you've got carpets everywhere I can see why the slippers policy might have been bought in, I also remember reading from someone on here that slippers or soft plimsoles were chosen due to an accident involving a child being kicked accidently with by a child in shoes. For freedom of movement shoes on all the time would seem the most sensible way to go.

What are your parents upset about? Do they want to keep the slippers? If so give them a briefing on the importance of CI and the need for them to be able to access the outdoors as they need to in line with the EYFS requirements.

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Also v. confused about why parents should be 'upset' - I guess some people just don't handle a change of any sort very well.

 

Ours wear their outdoor shoes all the time. We are only a small group but even so I find it takes quite long enough just to get coats on I really wouldn't want to deal with shoes too!

 

We have 'princess' dressing up shoes and they always get a '5 minute warning' that it's time to put their own shoes back on as it seems to take an age!

 

Sunnyday

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We have a slippers policy. Children change them themselves as it's all about independence and self-help skills. They just get on with it. We don't worry about it at all - I'd worry more about dog muck on the carpets where children play! We've had it too - before we instigated slippers. Many of our children walk to Preschool, so can traipse anything in otherwise

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We have a slippers policy. Children change them themselves as it's all about independence and self-help skills. They just get on with it. We don't worry about it at all - I'd worry more about dog muck on the carpets where children play! We've had it too - before we instigated slippers. Many of our children walk to Preschool, so can traipse anything in otherwise

Fair enough!

 

Sunnyday

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We have complete free flow access to outdoor area and so we keep outdoor shoes on in the preschool, although some children change into wellingtons to play outside when wet. We have 2 of the magic carpet thingys that absorb water/mud from shoes in the two entrances. I understand why some people have a slipper policy for the above reasons. My concern with wearing slippers is do they protect feet from nails/tools etc at the indoor work bench area?

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We all wear slippers, children, staff and students.I think with a lot of the types of shoes children wear like uggs and doodles you have just as much of a risk with nails as slippers. I love wearing my slippers at work and the children do too.

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what do you do when you have regular fire drills?? Our fire meeting point is at the bottom of a grassy area - so when we have afire drill the slippers get filthy (particularly at this time of year).

 

The parents concerns are mainly due to the carpets being dirty, the fact that they are used to changing into slippers at home and that they only chose the nursery because slippers were worn in side (that one I feel is a bit dramatic!)

 

The main reason as I said for the change is that we have two corridors - I can't really emphasis enough how much a nightmare having two corridors is (one with a door into the free flow area and one at the other side of the building). If all the children ahd shoes on in the summer term then we could do the 'real' free flow thing!

 

I'm thinking a compromise that children can wear slippers but perhaps have a pair of shoes in bag so they can change into these during the periods of the day when the free flow is active - what do you think??

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