Nursery Vs Prep School

[Onlyrainbows]

I was chatting to a mum from nursery about our primary options and she mentioned sending her DC to the local prep. She mentioned the costs tend to be the same as the ones for nursery. Is this accurate? I've have to talked to my DH about it because we do need wraparound care. Is the logic for the most part accurate.

You will need to contact them and ask. I suppose it all depends if you are able to claim the free 30 hours. If you went down prep school route you would still need to cover the school holidays. State holidays are 13 weeks long and private schools are longer. You also need to think about the long term costs of private education and if you can afford to keep it up until they are 18.

The plan is to move when our 2yo is about 9/10. Maybe state school will have a better provision where we plan to move (East Anglia). The local schools here are oversubscribed and the better ones are CoE, nothing against it but we're not Christian and other parents who have been in a similar situation have said it wasn't pleasant for their DC

For reception maybe because you can still claim 30 hours until they're 5. But not further up.

Our current before/after school club is £25 a day (£125 a week, £1500 term) but local prep fees are £3k so double the price.

Up to year 3 is £4.5k per term. Our yearly nursery bills are £18k, I would have to check how much is it to cover for holidays

The main issue is covering the holidays. Our school does a 9am-3pm activity week over the first week of Christmas, Easter and summer for £60 per day. If you do that then it’s only one week to figure out until the state school holidays start and then you have all the usual play schemes, summer camps etc. However, I did find that a lot of them near us will only take 4 year olds on half days. Maybe it’s our area but all but one of the other families we know through the school have either a SAHP or a nanny/au pair. With 2 working parents it is very difficult.

You also need to factor in the cost of school lunches, uniform and extra curricular activities.

Oh and don’t underestimate the uniform costs. A day’s outfit (pinafore, blouse, cardigan and tights) costs over £100. We even have to have to a particular swimming hat that costs £9!

Yes this tends to be how some Prep and private schools lure parents in, in outstanding school areas. They will often fix a price at nursery until the end of Primary. Our local private ‘grammar’ has offered us the equiv of £1000 a month until he takes the 11+.

My DD goes to pre-prep (3&4 year olds) at the local independent. It is indeed the same price as all the other nursery's/preschools around us, and they accept 30 frees hours. Wrap around care from 7:30am-6pm. Ours also does either term time or full year contracts. It is definitely more like actual school then typical nursery - lots of phonics, maths, weekly Spanish, music and dance lessons with specialist teachers. She loves it and is doing great. At ours it doesn't guarantee a reception place, as is subject to assessment, or have any effect on fee's through primary.

Yes, the local one accepts the 30hr funding and lunches are included (it's tea that isn't if we want it). Wraparound care is also included, and only charge for meals. It does seem like a decent deal. It's also the closest one to us (within walking distance). It's early days, but looks like could potentially be a good option for us.

@Onlyrainbows

Up to year 3 is £4.5k per term. Our yearly nursery bills are £18k, I would have to check how much is it to cover for holidays

OK, but wrap around care when at school won't be anywhere near 18k. It'll probably be closer to 5k pa.

If you can easily afford private, go for it! I certainly would if I could afford it for all of my DCs. But it's completely disingenuous to compare to nursery fees pre - 30 hours/state primary & wrap around.

The idea is that we already spend that money and that (at least locally) the private school ends up costing about the same as nursery. The local schools aren't great and I wouldn't send our DS to the CoE one. Especially when he gets older, the local schools have no real after school clubs (at least nothing comparable to what other friends have experienced up country).