to keep DS off from preschool every Wednesday

[TwentyTinyToes]

...so we can go to our playgroup. He has five mornings at the local preschool attached to the local primary. He has settled ok, bit of a wobble at the start both today and yesterday so I stayed for about an hour and he was fine when I left. He loves the little playgroup we go to tomorrow, he has a couple of friends that are a similar age, we take 1 year old DD, he knows all the adults and is confident there.

Preschool looked surprised when I said he would not be in last Wednesday, and I need to let them know when I pick him up at 12. My main concern is that it will make Thursday harder for him.

Thoughts please?

Yes a school nursery, is that not preschool then? I thought the terms were interchangeable.

I quite agree re growing out of playgroup, but there are two other children his age (school year) there and he plays with them quite happily. It would probably only be for this term anyway.

My daughter is only at preschool for 3 mornings, so we can do stuff on the other 2 days. I don't see any problem with it at all

That's right sovery a number of DC at my DDs school (now year 2) didn't go to preschool at all! They are all fine.

Speak to your local authority funding office regarding the setting's insistence on 5 mornings.

I am a teacher in a nursery. In my local authority we are not allowed to insist on full attendance like that. The only thing we don't do is offer a single day or single session as in our experience it's very hard for children to settle, make friends and develop socially on so little attendance.

Parents are entitled to split their sessions as many ways as they like, but their funding will only be split 2 ways. Settings are not allowed to refuse to split funding.

However, if a parent has booked 5 sessions and rountinely only takes the same 4, we could not claim for 5 sessions as that would be fraudulent and would be picked up at a local authority funding audit.

I did this with my kids, got to make the most of that time before they start full time school.
The way I see it is that 'will you look back when they're in year 11 and regret that time off they had or remember the fond times you had?' Mine are in infants now and I don't regret that time off for a second!

LittleFish is right. Don't just accept their word for it. They probably CAN'T insist. It's not their money. It's yours.

This thread is a bit depressing. 2.10 yo DS is doing two sessions a week and will go up to three when he turns 3. I don't plan on doing more than four a week unless he really wants to. They will be in school long enough.

Thank you everyone. I will have a chat and see what they say regarding the funding.

I am very pleased with the setting and I strongly agree with all the comments about how this year should be about PLAY first and foremost, and so far he seems to be having a wonderful time. Just don't want to look back on this year and wish I had kept him to myself a bit more!

There seem to be a few differing responses re the funding. A few posters are absolutely right, if you routinely didn't go on a Wednesday the setting would have their funding reduced and it definitely could be seen as fraudulent.

I ran a very large setting with almost 90 children and it turned out that a childminder was not bring one of her mindees in on a Tuesday morning every week. We did not realise as all our children do different hours (any mixure of sessions from 2-10 morning, afternoon or all day) and we have 40 at every session.

We happened to be audited and it was picked up. Fortunately we did not get in trouble as the parents were not aware this was happening as the childminder just couldn't be bothered that day as she had other things to do instead of dropping the child off

The funding wasn't pulled as the child was supposed to attend however they are pretty strict on it.

I do feel that if you decide to send your child to a pre-school that insists on 5 sessions then you should adhere to their policy as you knew in advance, personally I would have gone for a community pre-school with the flexibility, they may not be as flash to look at as they don't have the funding for this but often they get the essence of the EYFS much better than more formal nurseries (obviously this is definitely not the case for all settings, just in my experience).

Ah X post, just seen that they seem to do a lot of learning through play which is brilliant. If you are really happy then just chat to them and see what they say.

We expect a commitment of 5 continuous sessions/ week, to ensure continuity for child, which we believe incredibly important. Our nursery is attached to a school, and our provision is very much focused on learning and is not childcare, and lots of what we do supports preparation for school, we advise parents if that's not right for their child then we're probably not the setting they want. That said, it's an un enforceable expectation, so not much we can do if parents do something else but we do ask the questions, why choose us?

Ps should have said, we are surrounded by other PVIs so lots of choice for parents, realise this is not the case for all

Oh, timeforanap, that's so, so sad. Focused on learning and getting ready for school. Not playing! Heaven forfend they were doing something so frivolous as spending time with their mother when they could be learning to sit with their legs crossed in silence. Continuity is important - so is being with mummy when you are three! For goodness sake, they are at school until they are eighteen, education is not compulsory until they are five. Not three, five.

Reception class is supposed to be preparation for school. At what point is it ok for children to not be preparing for school? Two? One? Six months? Perhaps that's why we are recommended not to use a bottle after six months, it's not teeth at all, it's because they don't have them in year one.

I'm not the parent choosing to send them to our setting. I am the provider and this is what is offered. You don't like it, don't choose it.

Interesting about funding. When DD1 went to the school nursery (she is now year 2) I specifically asked about not doing five mornings as she was a July baby and still young. They were fine about it and she didn't go up to 5 mornings for over 2 terms. Then she woke up one Friday and said she wanted to go to nursery and off we went - no question about funding - her place was there and that was fine!

I run a nursery and we prepare for school too but we focus on the emotional ready ness of children.
We prepare them emotionally so they are confident and independent and have a sense of their own identity. We do that through play. We are not school and I resist the schoolification of early years

Timeforanap, I could offer a dog kicking service, it doesn't make it right

You know nothing about our setting. But clearly you are right and I accept my wrongness.

Happy now?

I know what you've told me, that you defend it with "it's not my fault parents choose it", and that you're defensive about it. I think even you know it isn't right.

underachievingmum the setting probably just claimed for the couple of sessions your dc did then claimed the extra sessions when she started doing more. If they were claiming all 5 for those 2 terms this was fraudulent. Many of the children at our setting only ever did 2 or 3 sessions right through till school and we only ever claimed for that number of sessions.