To expect Nurseries to do termly intake for 3-4 year olds?!

[thursdaysgirls]

I find it very confusing that the LEA website says my DD2 is entitled to this childcare from April 2014 yet the 2 local schools only do a September intake?

Nearest day nursery is closing in December. The next one closest to me is a bus ride away.

Anybody elses local schools only do a September intake? Is this now the norm?

They mainly have spaces when the others go to school, if there is only one school intake per year there is likely to be only one nursery intake.

Lots of nurseries lose all their 4 yos in September as they all start school. I guess that's when they have spaces which may all get filled quite quickly.

Yep is now the norm round here. Your dd is entitled to a pre-school place until September :)

Cross post.

Thanks orange.

DD1 goes to one of the schools. She was 3 in July 2011 so started September 2011, and they did have new children start in January 2012 and April 2012 however they do only have one school intake. They've recently changed policy and am a little bit miffed about it.

My dd turns three in Dec and will start at pre school in the Jan, our pre school let's them start the term after their their bday, but I have had to have her name on the waiting list from when she was tiny.

Nurseries don't get enough government funding to run at lower than full capacity, which they would have to do if they left spaces empty so that there were some available for the start of each term.

i work in a preschool and we are as flexible as we can be with intake.
if a child is only coming for their 15 government funded hrs we generally do an intake aat the beginning of the term. this is because the numbers and paperwork to get the funding has to be in to the lea by a couple of weeks into the term. it is VERY difficult to add an extra child to the funding after this until the next term.
if a child is starting before they are 3 (and therefore paying us) then we can be much more flexible

You could send her to a private nursery for her free 15hrs pwk, then move ger to the school.nursery in Sept?

My dc's school does termly intake in nursery if they have spaces. The morning sessions are currently full so they won't be doing it this year but the previous two years they've taken children in January and after Easter - my dd3 was 3 in Sept 2012 and started the nursery in Jan 2013. I thought for nursery this was fairly common but for reception places there was mostly a single intake.

There are no private nurseries in my area :( The nearest is a bus ride away and with DD1 being in school I would spend most of my day on a bus or doing the school run.

Ah well, just have to wait till September :D

As frustrating as it is for the nurseries attached to schools unless they are under subscribed it makes no sense to keep places open for 2 terms which is what they would have to effectively do if they had to offer termly intakes.

Our schools meithrin (nursery) has termly intakes - all of the dc have the option to start at the beginning of the term after their 3rd birthday.

I assumed that happened everywhere - obviously not so YANBU OP.

Most preschools can't afford to have empty places sitting there waiting to turn 3, they have to be full. Now that pretty much all children start school on the September after their 4th birthday, this is when places at preschools are freed up.

I work in a pre-school , which is a charity, and in order to be financially viable we need to be running towards capacity all the time. As we lost all our children to school in July, we have towards filled all our spaces with children who were entitled to start in September.

Were we to keep places open for children who were eligible to start in Jan or April, we would be running at a loss, and/or would need to make staff redundant, not stability for the children.

Our preschool let kids start termly, or whenever if they started before they were 3 (so were paying - even if only 2 sessions a week) they are a not for profit though.

If you can find a community based preschool and can start her early you may have better luck.

They would generally lose all their. 4 year olds at the same time , so it makes sense to get as many younger ones in at that time.

As much as I'd like there to be a January and April intake, in reality most settings will only offer it if they have spare places, if they can be full from September they'd prefer this

School nurseries in Scotland do a termly intake as standard.

agree with others.. the main intake will be in sept as that's when most places become available.

i didn't have any issue getting spaces for my lot as and when we required them though...

Some will do termly intakes if they couldn't fill their places in September, but obviously most will try to be full all the time or they won't be financially viable.

Preschools here are generally part of the schools. Almost all primaries have a school nursery in the building. So they manage the termly intakes fine.

They can only do that by holding empty places presumably though PrimalLass, which school nurseries and nursery schools here cannot afford to do.

The places are not empty as such. Everyone applies for a place in Jan/Feb for the next school year, but some of the children do not start until the term after their 3rd birthday. I am not sure if the place being allocated means it gets funded anyway. Then they use supply and temp staff for the busier terms.

The places are empty, whether they know who is coming in or not at that point places are empty!

In England they certainly wouldn't get an funding for an empty place - and why should they?

ds1 goes to a preschool attached to an infant school, there's only one nursery intake per year in the september.