If your DC was settled at nursery, would you move them to a different one if it would make their transition to school easier?

[ceebeegeebies]

DS2 has been at his current nursery for 2 years (4 days a week) - due to being a November baby, he will have nearly 2 years of pre-school before starting school in 2013.

I am not unhappy with his nursery (DS1 spent 3 years there) but they have done a few things over the years that I was not particularly happy with (the most recent is to halve the discount that they give to NHS staff) so the fees have recently increased.

It is unlikely that any of DS2's friends from nursery will be going to the same school as him so I am thinking that if I move him now to another local nursery (that is better than his current one imo) which generally 'feeds' the school he will be going to (last year, when DS1 started school, 50% of reception had come from this nursery), it will make it much easier for him to move to school in a couple of years.

Either move is going to be daunting for him as he does not like change at all so do I do it now, or leave him where he is and deal with the upset when he starts school?

[ceebeegeebies]

Bump

[Uglymush]

Can't speak from personal experience, but my SIL did this. Sadly she didn't like the nursery (she is a manger of one herself and has high standards) so took him back to the one she manages. She is still looking to find one though that will 'feed' the schools my nephew will go to. I think it is a very sensible idea, and would do the same if necessary

[DialMforMummy]

I would not do especially if you say he does not like change. He might be able to cope with change better when he is older.
He will have to make new friends at the new nursery anyway. I would not do it if your DC is happy at his current nursery.

[MummyNic]

I would move him. I've moved my son to a nursery close by as previous one was many miles away so no child would be going to his future school. I did 4 settling sessions (my son is very sensitive to change) and he was a little quiet the first 2 weeks but he's really thriving now. Best to do a change early on, he'll soon forget his old nursery, but to put him in a school where he knows no one at age 4 to 5 will be far more daunting for him.
My son will be starting school in 2013 too so they must be similar in age. You could tie it in with the move to pre-school "lesson" as he'll have a slight change then anyway.
Good luck

[pleasenap]

I've been in (eldest DC) and am in (youngest DC) same situation. But I am very happy with my current nursery - no real bug bears at all. There is another nursery/pre-school which would make the transition to school easier but I didn't use it with DC1 as a) no school hol coverage and b) DC1 was/is pretty confident and sociable so I thought/hoped he'd be OK. DC1 didn't know anyone when he started and I did question whether it would've been better to send him to the pre-school. But he settled in fine and made friends OK. DC2 is more reticent with new people so I did consider sending him to the pre-school - but in the end I didn't as I didn't want to rock the boat with DC2 where he's been for a good while.

If you think the new one is better and would help socially then I'd be inclined to move probably, especially if I wasn't 100% thrilled by the current nursery.

[pleasenap]

Other thing....is your DS1 at the school your DS2 will be going to? If so then you may know another mum from the playground that either has a child going into the same school year (or knows someone that does), that you could arrange playdates with?

[ceebeegeebies]

Mummynic do you not recognise me?? And us being FB friends aswell !

Thanks for the advice - it seems pretty mixed so still not sure what to do The nursery might not have a place until next August anyway (will ring me tomorrow to confirm) so may have 12 months to think it over!!

Pleasenap my 2 DC sound exactly the same as yours. DS1 is incredibly sociable and would have had no issues settling it at school without knowing anyone (as it is, his 2 closest friends from nursery moved to school!) whereas DS2 is much more clingy to me and I already know will find starting school much more daunting I have got one friend whose DD is in the same class as DS1 and our younger DC will both be starting school at the same time so I am planning on starting playdates with them soon.

[MummyNic]

Of course I did CeeBee... I was being covert!!! It's a tough decision... My niece has just moved from Primary school to Big school. Not a single class mate moved with her so she only knew her much older brother (in his last year).. I was really worried about her but she's fine & making friends already.
Go with your gut, but having moved DS to one near his future school I would vote for the move