when to apply?

[Ambrosius]

My son turns 3 in august, so he will start pre-school in September (I think) so when should I be applying for a place? I have literally no ideas how to go about this! tia :)

[Indith]

Depends on the area I think and how oversubscribed (or not) they are. Around here you just go and fill in a form once they turn 2 and then they contact you during the term before they are due to start. That is for the pre-school anyway, if you want to use a private nursery for your 15 hours then you need to contact the individual nurseries and enquire about availability of places.

[inmysparetime]

Do you mean school nursery? With an August birthday he'd be the right year group for it. Go on your Local Authority website to see the school application dates, then contact individual schools to do their applications too.

[OddBoots]

I don't think there is such thing as contacting the nursery too early, give them a call tomorrow to ask what you should do.

[HouseworkProcrastinator]

Daughter due to start September (July birthday) the playgroup gave the applications out last week, I think in our area closing date is April. Worth outing in now anyway no harm in being early.

[lynniep]

I would contact the nursery you want immediately (if private). It varies so much there's no one answer to this. Only they can tell you the score! TBH even if not private, I'd contact the nursery in the first instance because the can tell you if you have to go via the LA or not.

[frankie76]

Mine needed to be by feb for next September so u will need to do it now

[Ambrosius]

Thanks for the replies, Im panicking now! We're moving house but not sure where yet. Oohh god its worse than I thought...
Gonna check out the LA website.