What's the difference between a nursery school and a preschool?

[user2020213]

Why do I pay £££ at DD nursery school when preschool is relatively cheap/free (once funded hours kick in)?

I haven't been able to find out from Google 🤷🏽‍♀️

Nursery schools often are part of a primary school and have a qualified teacher. In my experience (teacher) nurseries start on things like phonics abs early maths. Pre schools do too, but again in my experience, it’s mainly ‘play’.

@Bloodyhamabeads well they certainly shouldn’t be doing that, that’s not part of the EYFS (pre reception stage, anyway) and not best for children.
OP it’s a bit of a mystery - there’s not necessarily a clear private/state divide; there are plenty of school-linked nurseries (that will be state) and private preschools. My preschool is not school linked, is private, and we don’t charge extra for funded children or anything like that. And obviously there is differences in care and education across settings (otherwise ofsted wouldn’t exist!) but all early years settings, whether they’re private or state or anything else, follow the same regulatory structure (the EYFS statutory framework, if you’re interested). I think you’re just being ripped off tbh and would definitely look into other places!

@Bloodyhamabeads just reread your post and you’re right that all places should start the early foundations of literacy & numeracy - I read your post as nursery schools making children sit down to ‘formal learning’ type stuff, which isn’t advised or advisable for such young children for many reasons.

Preschool is often the term used for 3 and above - so literally the preschool year. I also personally refer to preschools as the kind of 9-3 part time often term time only places where they are there purely to access the EYFS and play and make friends and it’s solely for the children’s benefit that they attend as apposed to necessarily needing to attend for a care basis.
I refer to nursery as the all day all year round structure where, on top of the learning side of things with the EYFs, they also receive child care - so meals, naps etc and are taken care of for a longer period of time.

But to be honest the terms are interchangeable. Nursery is anything before school age essentially. Maybe a bit of a more old fashioned term?

(Btw when I say for the child’s benefit, I don’t mean that it’s bad for a child to attend full time nursery. Not at all. I mean much of the time nursery = a need for longer child care, and preschool often = sending child for a couple of hours to play and make friends and enjoy the benefits but often not because it’s needed due to work)

£2000 a term for 9-12 term time only sounds a lot! I think there’s better affordable options out there.

Many setting that are for 3 and above will give that for free using funded hours - you may be asked for a contribution towards snacks or asked to provide nappies of your child’s not potty trained.

Preschools and nurseries can’t ask directly for top ups to the funded hours. They CAN however apply the funded hours how they wish, so for example they can say you can only use funded hours between 11am and 2pm - which is a pain in the bum for most people and they therefore charge for the hours around it. Or no funded hours on Wednesday for example. They can do that.

However if you only need 9-12 from 3 years old you will most likely find it available completely funded, so I think ultimately you can save most of that £2k. Call around - many preschools are private businesses that would allow it so don’t dismiss private or state, just enquire.

I think the main differences between preschools can be quite stark. I’ve worked in one which was very much 100% child led all the time. We did circle time / stories / singing etc yes and laid out activities that were planned but it was completely up to the child for the whole session what they did.
The last preschool I was in did try to build the academic foundations more - we did phonics letters using the jolly phonics songs, and worked hard to get them recognising their name or at least the first letter. I personally didn’t start them writing and such because I don’t think that age bracket needs to be - there’s plenty of time for that, however I had colleagues who did start to push reading, writing and basic maths - some of it after parent pressure. The preschool attached to my school starts phonics from the word go (one academic year before reception) - I have mixed feelings about it - I think the most important thing from preschool is socialising, learning to play, building the physical and verbal skills through play, and building independent skills like getting themselves dressed and eating independently.

There’s so many lovely preschools out there OP, best of luck in your search. Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

I only ever see pre school mentioned on MN.
All the children aged 3-4 I know (who aren't staying at home until school) go to nursery. Either a day nursery, a school nursery or both.
There's also playgroup where they can start at 2.5, some people get that funded others pay.

Pre School isn't a phrase you hear much these days so I don't think it has a particular difference.

It's certainly widely used where we are. The local school have a pre school abs the private nursery we used had a pre school room

The ‘nursery school’ our children went to was privately run, whereas most pre-schools are charities or school based and regulated to some degree by local authorities. The ‘nursery school’ we used was essentially a private pre-school, offering 9-3 hours at a very big cost. In return, there were better staff ratios abs more activities on offer. Many of the staff had degrees and many were trained teachers. Although very child-led, there was lot more input into initial reading and writing, and children did French, pottery and yoga. It was all very nice and they got a lot from going there, but it was very expensive.

Bloody hell this is confusing ! I opened the thread because I realised I didn’t know the difference. It seems unbelievably complicated
Feel the need for a diagram coming on.
Good luck op.

In my mind and most people round here say “pre school” for the type of nursery that is part of a school for the kids in the year prior to reception. My kids go to this (when open) 3 hours a day, term time. Childminder rest of the time.
Nursery would be a private 8-6 setting taking 0-4s.

There are two types of nurseries. The day nursery which is generally for working parents - and then there is the nursery attached to a school which has school hours.

I think the difference between a nursery attached to a school and a pre-school - ( they target the same age group) - is that a nursery has a qualified teacher. Hence it's more expensive.

@Equimum

The ‘nursery school’ our children went to was privately run, whereas most pre-schools are charities or school based and regulated to some degree by local authorities. The ‘nursery school’ we used was essentially a private pre-school, offering 9-3 hours at a very big cost. In return, there were better staff ratios abs more activities on offer. Many of the staff had degrees and many were trained teachers. Although very child-led, there was lot more input into initial reading and writing, and children did French, pottery and yoga. It was all very nice and they got a lot from going there, but it was very expensive.

This sounds similar to us although the standard hours offered are only 9-12. If we have DD stay till 3 every day then it becomes the same cost as a pre-prep per term I had no idea early years education could be so expensive (I'm not originally from the UK so really don't know!).

Over the years with two children in three locations, my children up to starting school attended...

1. XXX nursery. Took children aged 6 weeks to School age. 3yos could have up to five sessions a week free.
2. YYY Preschool. Exactly the same arrangement. Just 50miles away.
3. ZZZ Crèche. 6months to 3years, plus 'wrap' for 3yos at school.
4. ZZZ School... The 3/4yos were in Foundation 1, 3hrs a day. Then taken over to the crèche if longer day needed.

Nursery, Preschool, Crèche, Playschool, Kindergarten... All names for the same thing in my experience.

SueEllen actually yes you are right - 'pre school' does still get used. I was a bit wrong there.
It basically varies from area to area as to what it's known as. My Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire friends call 'Reception' class in primary school 'Foundation'. I have also heard it called 'Early Years'. (Peppa Pig and her pals go to 'playgroup')
But basically the 3 - 5 year age group is officially Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Whether it's state or private or an Ofsted registered child minder they should all be following the EYFS curriculum.

Judging on these responses, I guess the names must vary by location .
Where I am we have:
Nursery - from birth to 4/5. Provides childcare for working parents for the whole day. Lunch and snacks includes and often extras such as baby milk, nappies etc. Privately run, not council. Has different ‘rooms’ for different ages, including a pre school room for the year(s) before reception age.

School nursery - part of a primary school. Council or academy run. Often has a qualified teacher and other staff, of is overseen by a teacher as part of ‘Early Years’.

Preschool- often a charity run by volunteers with paid staff, sometimes located in a village hall or church room. Takes children from around 2 1/2 with the main purpose of socialisation and playing.

This isn’t an exhaustive list or definition, just my own observations as parent or 3 having used all 3 settings and primary teacher.

I would agree with the terminology @Aroundtheworldin80moves says that basically preschool, nursery, kindergarten etc are all the same - I would remove crèche from that though (and think most child care professionals would agree).
Crèche is where you plonk the children while you go shopping or the girls. Crèche is potentially after school care. The key difference is the planning. Children in crèche are literally being babysat, they are holding pens. The staff in the leisure Center gym don’t need to plan or create a journal for your child or do anything for their development. They need to just keep your child alive and safe and make sure they have fun. Like a wrap around club after school - safe and fun.

• sorry girls above - I meant gym

Our work place nursery has baby, toddler and pre-school rooms.

The preschool rooms are equivalent age range to school nursery. It sounds like your provider is a private endeavour for this age range only.

Our preschool follows the same as the rest of nursery. Open 7am-7pm and only closed bank holidays. Hot food is provided and all snacks, nappies, wipes, sun cream etc.

They take funded hours and stretch them over the year.

Currently £4.75 an hour, paid by salary sacrifice. They don’t accept childcare vouchers.

@Ilovemaisie

SueEllen actually yes you are right - 'pre school' does still get used. I was a bit wrong there. It basically varies from area to area as to what it's known as. My Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire friends call 'Reception' class in primary school 'Foundation'. I have also heard it called 'Early Years'. (Peppa Pig and her pals go to 'playgroup') But basically the 3 - 5 year age group is officially Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). Whether it's state or private or an Ofsted registered child minder they should all be following the EYFS curriculum.

All the stuff on our school website calls it foundation, but in practice they’re called reception. As in ‘good morning reception’ etc.

Very confusing (Yorkshire)

I always think of a nursery as taking babies from x months old ..like for working parents..open all the time and long hours ..baby rooms etc etc

Pre school I thought was what I used to call playschool..few hours a morning Term time only .

I work in a private school ....we have a nursery ..open same hours as the main school for 2 year olds until they go to reception..they don't have to stay at our school for reception though and many don't .