What was a playgroup and do they still exist?

[NameChange9490]

I know that when I was 2 I went to playgroup 3 mornings a week, for the year before I went to nursery school. As a mum now I’ve never heard of a playgroup. Does anyone know what they were and why they don’t appear to exist any more?

Lots of playgroups around where I live. A couple of pounds entry to a church hall.

Yes the playgroup was lovely and ran by older ladies.

They then went to morning nursery attached to school for 2.5 hours so I had one at nursery and one at playgroup finishing 30 mins afterwards so a lot of to and froing

Playgroups when dd was little were run by a committee and held in a local hall/community centre. Dd went 5 days a week from 2 and a half til school. We paid subs for it.
We had issues with premises and it moved to the nearest school in the end.
My lord it was a god send though

Any are you writing in the past tense?

All that is still true, possibly not where you live but in my area (not the 1970a when I lasted checked);primary schools don't have any classes below reception and children go to playgroups which take funding, come under Ofsted, rum not for profit but have paid ataff

Not everywhere is the same

There are no playgroups in England that are like the ones pre 90s/00s... because this is when early years education started to be more formalised (and funded) and when Ofsted was started (in 90s for schools... 2001 for childcare).
Now you get toddler groups/stay and play etc... where parents/carers stay kids play drop in and out.. but all the rest of early years provision should be ofsted registered and should adhere to the EYFS.
Nurseries, preschools, school nurseries... as well as adhering to the EYFS, all have rules about ratios, safeguarding and the amount of staff required to have specific qualifications as early years practitioners.
My mum used to run a playgroup in the 70s with a group of women, in a community centre - they all took turns on a rota and all did informal preschool training days run by the Preschool Learning Alliance (set up in the 1960s)... I remember the beautiful Fuzzy Felt book my mum made on one of these, with a brown and orange owl on the cover!🙂

Preschools that people are talking about as if they no longer exist.. very much do, but many areas now favour school nurseries, so this will be the only provision alongside wraparound care nurseries (which operate in holidays as well as term time and for longer hours).
School nurseries have different ratio rules but apart from that they should adhere to the EYFS in exactly the same way as preschools do.

We have them here in the local churches/library. Toys, singing, snacks etc. Parents have to stay.

What I know as a playgroup is run like a nursery but usually attached to schools and only open school hours, takes from 2.5-3 to school age. There’s a few around here

There are still many many playgroups- often called pre-schools
They typically offer 15 hours a week (some 30) usually term time only
They take 2-5 or 3-5 (so up until children's start school)
They are typically run in community premises and so they have to pack up at the end of a session. Often church/community halls

Why did they decline -
Childcare vouchers in the mid 90s were great but accompanied by regulation and lots of premises didnt meet it.
Staff needed to be trained and employed but that wasn't a main barrier and there were lots that closed with very large cash reserves.
More mums work and need full daycare
Lots of churches sold off their community spaces as small congregations and needed funds (linked to 2nd home ownership sometimes)
Less children in villages (see 2nd home ownership above)
Struggled with 30 hours as the space was needed for bridge or Zumba in the afternoon
Grumpy village hall committee members don't like children (ok that's a personal view based on experience as an LA EY Strategic Lead trying to keep them open)

A fair few moved into school premises and eventually got subsumed into the school as opening school nurseries became much easier post 2010.

So im summary:
Less children in rural communities
Issues with suitable premises

There are loooaaads of playgroups around here.
They're mostly at church/community centres for a couple of hours of a weekday morning. There's usually a craft table, loads of toys and parents get a tea/coffee and a biscuit and kids get juice/water and a snack.
They're about £1-£2

We went to loads when mine were babies and toddlers

Preschools are not playgroups...
Preschools have to adhere to EYFS and have qualified staff. Playgroups did not.
Preschools exist in lots and lots of areas that haven't gone down the school nurseries route or alongside school nurseries. We have a lot in our area... the one I worked in until a couple of years ago, ran from 8.30 - 4 Mon- Fri in term time, in a stand alone building. We took children from ages 2.5 - school. We had an EY teacher, and all other staff were qualified to Level 3.

Yes they are. It is just a different name, possibly regional?

Pre 1990s playgroups/pre-schools did have to adhere to some rules but not many- my DM was a teacher in a playgroup for a few years in the 1970s and they had spot-checks from the council. Children were left without their parents but parents volunteered on a rota alongside paid staff.

The group where you stay and pay a few pounds are/were parent and toddler groups. They were always different from playgroups as you stayed with your child even in the 70s and 80s.

In the 1990s childcare vouchers came in alongside EYFS regulations. At that point the playgroups/pre-schools could continue as unregulated or become regulated and receive funding.

Those that opted for vouchers didnt change what they did (well most increased to 15 hours if not at that ) but had more regulation but they were fundamentally playgroups still (most were registered with the pre-school learning alliance).

Your experience of this may vary , mine comes from being responsible for childcare places in 1 of the largest LAs in the country from the late 90s to mid 00s. We had about 170 playgroups/pre-schools that went through the registration for funding process.

There were PVI settings
Private- day nurseries
Voluntary- committee run non profit making playgroups and pre schools (so those that we are discussing)
Independent - independent schools

This is England only.

There used to be 3 but now only 2 exist around us, they’re at church halls. I’d drop off after the Primary school run then DC could stay til about 12. They’re now OFSTED registered. It’s a little church hall with plenty of staff and lots of play.

My dgs1 went to the local playgroup to me three mornings a week. He loved it. Singing, painting, playing in their outdoor space and trying different foods. They also did a monthly theme such as under the water, fireworks etc. Dgs2 will start later this year. It's attached to the community centre. Definitely no parents/grandparents. The toddler group is held in the church hall but that doesn't have any specific focus. Just toys and chat. And carers have to stay

Sorry. I think maybe our experiences differ and with the confusion over the names... preschool/playgroup/toddler group/ etc...

I found it frustrating that the Preschool where I worked (and which makes up the majority of provision in our area) was seen as somehow inferior to a school nursery (which we don't have here apart from the one attached to one of the local private schools) and an extension of the 'playgroups' of the 60s/70s and 80s (which was what I assumed this thread was asking about).. when in reality we were all qualified, had regular outstanding ofsted inspections and delivered the full EYFS through play based activities. It was and is very different to the playgroup my mum ran in the 70s!

The whole of early years is in a bit if a mess though realistically, and i think some of this is down to the perception of what it is! (..as evidenced by this thread!😅)

Years ago it used to be volunteer run childcare, usually in the church or village hall and only for a couple of hours or so, so something like 9-12 or 1-3. It was usually a room full of toys and ride ons supervised by a couple of adults. Parents either took turns to watch the children or the volunteers did. This was the days before ofsted registered child care, official care ratios, tax free child care, funded hours ect. Most mums were SAHP or worked very part time so didn't need full days of child care. A lot of playgroups ran something like 2 or 3 sessions a week and were used as a social event for parents or were a drop and run to do the food shop/drs appointment/ hair dresser. This set up has all but disappeared due to many mum's now needing full days of childcare, most mums going back to work, ofsted registering, ratios, tax free and funded hours child care.

Nowadays most playgroups are of the stay and play variety. Parents accompany their child.

There is one of the old style playgroups still running in a very rural and affluent village near my mum. This group has been going on since when my parents (in their 60s) were young. It's run by the church wardens 2 mornings a week and is on 10-12. Due to the very affluent nature of the village there is a group of SAHPs who use the group. There are only about 6 children who attend and it is 2-5 years age range.

The child care element of the old style playgroups is now covered by nurseries and childminders.

There is no consistency in naming childcare.

We used three settings, AA nursery, BB preschool then CC creche. The first two were actually linked, in different towns. Exact same set up.. for children 6 months to 5yo, open 9-3 term time only. CC creche was only 6mo-3yo in the mornings, but took the 3-5yo in the afternoons (as it was 15hrs in school nurseries then.. they picked them up from the school next door). Different names, same set up.

The preschool (previously called a playgroup when was first established ) my youngest went to until last year provided care 9-12 for £12, morning session 8-1 at private day nursery is £36 or £64 for the day 8-6. They are both fantastic settings but quite different and cater very much for different needs. The nursery takes from babies and operates all year, fantastic for my work days but the preschool brilliant for my days off, could drop older children off at school, then little one at preschool, get some jobs and wfh done then pick them up at lunchtime, home for lunch and nice chilled afternoon together before school run. Preschool great for the SAHM mums too, particularly ones with older children at school who won’t be dropping off till 9am anyway as funding covered 5 mornings 9-12 during term time but only 2 mornings a week at the private nursery (plus top up fees - quite reasonable given they needed to provide good home cooked lunch and other extra things given many of the children there 8-6 Monday - Friday).
Toddler/baby groups were great when little ones still at nap stage as would do a group in the morning then could get jobs done while they had their nap in the afternoon

I always thought of a creche as being somewhere where parents dropped their children off for some one off care/babysitting e.g shopping malls, ikea and leisure centres and airports used to have them, some people hire them for weddings etc

To add. When the regulation came in the playgroups that did not register had to drop to 2 hours or less per session as you needed an Ofsted registration for more than 2 hours regardless of whether you were funded or not.

And more complex some of what were previous voluntary groups so pre-schools in village hall type premises are now run as private businesses and are profit making. The name or offer often hasn't changed but they are now a business.

@Bellsra it was definitely an oddname. But it was fully compliant, ofsted registered nursery, following the EYFS curriculum. The name had just never been changed up to that point, in 2018. I believe it did change its name when they moved to new premises that year.

Mother and baby club was run by parents and ran activities for SAHMs. I ran one. We did have a dad turn up a few times. It was more to prevent social isolation for the parents rather than socialising the children as they mostly played alone at this stage. 0-2.5 age group.

Playgroup/play school was run by paid staff usually in a village hall or church hall. Children had to be 2.5 and out of nappies. This was a strict rule. It was mostly mornings and I send my DC three mornings a week.

Children started school the term after their fifth birthday or the term they were five depending on the local rules. There was no year R.

Back in the 1970s most mums didn't work and there was a great network of us. We ran babysitting circles too so that we could babysit each other's children and earn credits. I still have friends that I met at baby group.

The fact that most mothers now work and more awareness of safeguarding etc. drove the huge growth in nurseries. The change in rules with borrowing for mortgages had an effect. It used to be three times the husband's income. If a wife worked, it was disregarded though sometimes ten per cent of her income was allowed. Couples were expected to be married. Once this became joint income, house prices were driven up as couples could borrow more and women were expected to work. There has been a great social change in fifty years. I didn't know any mums that weren't married, although there were some divorces, none of my friends had babies unmarried. For those women who had to work, childminding was generally unregulated and I could earn £5-10 a week looking after children. My friend's husband was at university and she was a teacher, so the breadwinner which was far from the norm. She had to go back to work when her baby was six weeks old, so I had him until he was six months old and he could go into a crèche at her school where students were learning child care. There was no maternity pay, just a small maternity allowance and one woman I knew had to go back to work with a two week old and breastfeed in the toilet.

I went to one too. Would have been in late 70/early 80s. We sometimes called it playgroup and sometimes called it Mrs Ling’s, after the woman who ran it from her house.

Early years foundation stage, it's the curriculum they follow from age 3-5 at preschool/school. I saw on this thread that might be the difference between preschools and playgroups. I guess it's more structured and they follow advice on teaching numbers, colours, letters etc

Im 50 and i went to.a playschool in the 70,s a few mornings a week ,ii was run by volunteers i dont remember much about it other than running around but i was dropped off by my mum and i.assume they paid a small fee i think it was the year before i started school.so i would have been 3/4
I took my now 17 year old to a playgroup.when he waa a toddler but i.stsyed with him.