Running a nursery open day that actually fills places

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A Saturday morning is set aside, the rooms are tidied, staff come in on their day off, and forty families walk through the building. Everybody agrees it went well, and three weeks later nobody can say how many places it produced.

An open day gathers the most interested families a setting will meet all year into a single morning. Treating it as a public relations exercise rather than as the enquiry event it is wastes the most concentrated opportunity in the calendar, and the difference is almost entirely in the preparation and the follow-up rather than in the event itself.

1. Running a nursery open day starts with knowing what it is for

Decide the outcome before the date.

Filling September places, promoting a new baby room, or reaching a neighbourhood you do not draw from all lead to different invitations, different timing and different conversations on the day. An open day held because it is that time of year produces a pleasant morning and very little else.

2. Invite the people already interested first

Your enquiry list is the best audience.

Families on the waiting list, those who enquired and never visited, and existing parents with a younger child are all closer to a decision than anybody who sees a poster. A direct invitation to that group usually fills the morning before any general promotion is needed.

3. Pick a time working parents can actually attend

An obvious constraint that gets overlooked.

Weekday mornings suit the setting and exclude precisely the families who need full-time childcare. A weekend morning or an early evening reaches the parents you most want, and two shorter sessions frequently work better than one long one.

4. Let them see the setting in use if you can

Empty rooms tell parents very little.

A tidy, silent nursery is harder to assess than a room with children in it. Where an open session during operating hours is possible, even for a short window, families see the thing they are actually buying rather than a version of it prepared for display.

5. Have enough staff to talk properly

The bottleneck on every open day.

One manager cannot hold twenty conversations, and families who wait ten minutes for attention leave with a poor impression. Room staff who can talk about their own room, and a clear route around the building, matter more than refreshments or decoration.

6. Take names and requirements from everybody

The step most often skipped.

A short form asking for contact details, the days wanted and the intended start date turns an attendance into a follow-up list. Without it, the morning produces goodwill and no way to act on it, which is how open days come to seem ineffective.

7. Answer the practical questions in writing

Parents leave with more questions than answers.

A single sheet with fees, funded hours, opening times, the settling-in process and how to register prevents the vague memory that follows a busy morning. Families compare settings afterwards at home, and the setting whose figures are in their hand has an advantage.

8. Follow up within two days

Where the placements are won or lost.

A personal message referring to something specific from the conversation, with the next step made obvious. Interest decays quickly, and a setting that contacts families on the Monday consistently converts more than one that waits a fortnight for a general newsletter.

9. Count what it produced

The measurement that improves the next one.

Attendance, registrations, and places confirmed within three months, recorded against the cost and the staff hours. That comparison tells you whether to repeat it, change the timing, or spend the same effort on something else entirely.

Ask two or three attending families what they thought afterwards, including anything that felt awkward or unclear. Settings routinely discover that the route around the building was confusing, or that nobody explained the fees, and both are simple to fix before the next one.

Conclusion

Treat the open day as the highest-intent enquiry event of your year rather than as a community occasion.

Decide what it is for before setting a date, invite your existing enquiry list first, choose a time working parents can attend, let families see the setting in use where possible, staff it so nobody waits to be spoken to, collect names and requirements from everybody who attends, hand out the practical figures in writing, follow up personally within two days, and measure the places it produced rather than the number who came.