Olive Rack, owner of Tresco House Day Nursery in Kettering, is charged with common assault by Northamptonshire Police. In an incident last July, she allegedly used excessive force when reprimanding the child, who had hit a baby with a toy brick.
The child's parents did not press charges and their daughter still attends the nursery.
Local authority education advisors Gillian Whall and Julie Medhurst were on a routine visit to Tresco Nursery on 18 July 2005 when the incident occurred. The council officials did not challenge Mrs Rack at the time but later reported what they saw to Ofsted.
Mrs Whall appeared in Daventry Magistrates Court last week as a witness for the prosecution, claiming that Mrs Rack had over-reacted to the two-year-old's actions. She said that Mrs Rack had pulled and dragged the girl across the room before forcing her into a chair, and also described Mrs Rack as poking the girl twice in the head so that it jerked back.
The Yorkshire Post reported that David Malone, defending for Mrs Rack, asked Mrs Whall if she would advocate the use of the 'naughty step'
technique used in the television programme 'Supernanny'. Mrs Whall replied that verbal commands should be enough.
Mrs Rack, who has more than 20 years' experience in childcare, spoke to Nursery World after a preliminary hearing held on 20 December last year.
She said there was 'nothing unusual' in the way she had dealt with the child and described the incident as an 'everyday occurrence' (News, 5 January 2006).
She also claimed the situation occurred because the local authority officials had moved the baby into the toddler room without permission from nursery staff.
Mrs Rack has over 20 years experience in childcare and the nursery was set up in 1996.
