My 3 year old at big school nursery - worried he’s too young

My children go to a large 3 form entry primary school, around 650 children, which accepts children from 2yo to daycare. All children can go to wraparound care from 7.15am to 6pm including the 2yos (my dd started at 2 and did full days).

For the first and last hour of the day, when the numbers of children are greatly reduced and there are few under 5s in wraparound care, they mix all ages. However, normally EYFS, nursery and daycare were kept separate to the rest of daycare in a different area of the school. The ratios need to be adhered to and this is hard to do when you mix EYFS with other children.

In a nursery attached to a school they will be treated as a seperate unit amd treated as nursery children.. They are not trainee reception children. Should be fine and a lovely secure experience.

The main gate/door at a school, after school club, nursery, preschool, whatever should always be secure. Our school has a huge fence and a stone wall and a gate and you have to ring the bell for a member of staff to come let you in (or as is more often the case, bring your child to you). That is the case whether they are in reception or year 6.

Afterschool club and preschool are different building, locked glass doors that can only be opened with staff key cards. Again, they bring your child to the door.

If anyone can walk in from the street and children can let themselves out, that’s a huge red flag and needs to be reported to Ofsted.

All the rest of it sounds fine. The free flow is great for them. But I wouldn’t have moved him from a nursery where he was settled, that would have been fine until school age.

You might be surprised how well he does OP. I’m sure the staff will be looking out for the tiny ones a bit more.
My daughter started Maternelle (like school nursery in France) the week before she turned three and she in fact spoke very little of the language and has come on leaps and bounds. The children in halte garderie (afterschool club) all seem to have a brilliant time having free range of the school- same set up three years old to six years old and the bigger kids look out for the small ones too.

Yes, I mean in terms of things like having to wear uniforms, lower staff ratios, just a slightly less “caring” and more “educating” environment. But the day nursery she went to was wonderful, with really experienced early years practitioners, if I didn’t feel that way about it I might have chosen differently. I also preferred the big transition from one setting to another to happen at when she was a bit older, at 4 rather than 3.

They all follow the same EYFS curriculum anyway so I certainly don’t think she was held back on anything like phonics. About half her class went to the school nursery and half came from day nurseries or childminders, and there was no difference between the two cohorts in terms of learning/ability/performance that I could tell.

It’s the wraparound care part of your situation that I wouldn’t like though, more than the main school nursery part. I don’t think school after school clubs are well set up for 3 year olds. My DD’s is run by an external company and it’s great, she has a fantastic time, but I don’t think it would have been right for her at 3.

Both of our children started school nursery shortly after turning 3 and they absolutely loved it. However in our case the nursery was separate to the main school and nursery children couldn't attend after school club. Could you look for a childminder to pick him up?
I would be concerned about security though. Our school has locked gates and high-ish fence around the playground & field.

Both days nurseries and school nurseries follow the same eyfs framework so there should be no difference in what they are learning.

whatever the setting they should follow EYFS guidance

I'd find out more details of the after school club.

It needs to be run as childcare if it's taking early years children, so unless a qualified teacher is physically there in the club with the 3 & 4 year old there needs to be a level 3 qualified early years practitioner and a 1:8 ratio. The children need to be supervised - an adult can't just be in and out of the room.

I do think school nurseries expect a lot of 3 year olds which was one of the drivers behind keeping my DD at her day nursery until Reception. But they do take 3 year olds so should be set up for them. Is there a member of staff you could talk to about your concerns about the after school club?

I am more than ok, but thank you for your passive-aggresive 'concern'

Some of our local school nurseries take children from 2 and are looking at taking babies from 9 months.

I would be asking more questions about ratios etc of after school club. Which part of the school is it in? I would assume most external doors would have something like maglock on it so children can’t normally open them but locks released in an emergency

@mythreeyrone of my son’s friends is an August birthday and had been 3 a matter of days before the September term started and he seems to have settled in well. I guess with it being private school (I have no knowledge or experience of private schools) they wouldn’t have accepted your child if they didn’t think they were ready so he should be fine.

You can ask to see the risk assessment they have for the after school club and the younger children especially. You are well within your rights to raise concerns you have about gates being left open and access to the site.

My school have nursery children with reception and year 1 children for breakfast and after school club so this is normal. Do they actually have free access to all the places you mention? In ours these group are kept in one room and if enough adults, then they will allow them to move onto one playground.
The older children is a similar set up, where they are in another room and have access to a larger playground but again they need to wait for a staff member to say they can go out and have the correct level of supervision.

I am surprised at the level of security though. Our nursery building needs a pass to open, likewise once parents have collected after school they shut the main gates and parents have to press a buzzer to collect from after school club and a pass is needed to open the doors.
Do you mean the door to nursery can be opened by the children and they can roam free in the school grounds, or that the school is easily accessed in which case I would speak to the headteacher about how they safeguard children.

The nursery sounds good. The afterschool club sounds less appropriate. I would leave him at the nursery but use alternative afterschool care if you possibly can!

• Could you change your work hours to mean you can do pick-ups?
• Is there an independent day nursery that has a wrap around care club and would pick up both your children from school and take them back to better afterschool provision?
• Is there a childminder who does pick ups from the school who could have your kids?

If I had my way again, I would have kept ds2 behind a year, he was the youngest in his year group (July baby) and he was always the kid catching up as he was 10 months younger than his peers.

He is absolutely fine now but I think in hindsight if we had kept him behind a year his schooling would have been a different experience for the better.

Generally most kids at a school nursery don’t start until the September after they turn 3 so I’m assuming your school had places to let your child in earlier? Just turning 3 is very young for the change to this environment but the school/nursery will be used to it so I would definitely speak to them. From September there should be more kids their age at the wraparound.

For what it’s worth, My son, turned 4 in March, has been going to his school nursery since September as we wanted him to get used to a school environment (cheaper than private nursery) and it’s been one of the best things we have done. He’s going to the reception at the school from this September but not every child in the school nursery has got a place so if you are having reservations look at the councils admissions criteria as if you don’t think they’ll get into reception maybe you should rethink what’s right for them?

Wow. Two sentences promote that reaction. Are you ok?

If you feel like he is unsafe you need to move him or speak with them. It is their responsibility to mind him, they should not be accepting 3 year olds if it is an unsuitable or unsafe environment.
If it is the case that safety is not an issue but you feel maybe he is a bit overwhelmed then you could give it a bit of time to see if he settles.

Oh, lovey, you are so very determined to have your view reinforced aren't you?
I do hope being a cow to a stranger makes you feel better, because you seem to need to get rid of some bile. Otherwise, there's 111

If that's true, it's an Ofsted safeguarding automatic fail no matter how good the quality of education etc. are. I'd be raising it with the headteacher immediately.