To ask about nursery

[Letstryagainshallwe]

Sorry posting for traffic. My son starts nursery on Thursday. I was told he is to attend 5 days a week. Seems a lot. I thought it was only 2/3 days a week. Is this a lot? He is 3 and a half. Also if I wanted to keep him off for the day would it only be allowed for illness? (like with school)

Totally normal with school nurseries (though I'd expect them to have a setting in period so he doesn't go from nothing to 5 days).

Other pre-school settings allow you to be more flexible in terms of the hours and days you attend - perhaps you might be better sending your DS to one of these?

I think here there's an important distinction between needing to childcare/nursery due to having to go to work 9-5 or whatever.

If it's just a case of nursery being a 'nice experience' for LO, if they enjoy it you may as well send them in 5 days as week. Honestly, 3 hours a day is pretty minimal.

By comparison, my 3 year old is in nursery for at least 8 hours a day- this has been the case since they were 6 months old- but we need the childcare as we both work.

If it's a worry whether they will like it or cope with nursery, it will take some adjusting but in the end I'm sure they'll love it & gain lots from the experience.
And If you aren't paying for it either then that's a nice bonus!

yes it's normal. He will make friends that he'll keep in reception and further along the way.

That's really odd. My ds goes to preschool, funded hours, and I keep him home on the Friday as I think 4 sessions are enough.
Do they mean mornings? Won't be all day surely?

I think you need to ask them if he has to be in 5 days a week.

Yes, I'd check. Settings can have very different views. I expect it also varies depending on how much competition there is for places. If a child is taking up a spot that another could make full use of, I can see how they'd want to encourage full attendance, whereas if like ours there's no waiting list, there's nobody else being deprived of a place.

I'm a nursery teacher, nursery hours in schools are commonly morning or afternoon sessions! My school offer 9-1 (including lunch), 5 days a week and the expectation is that children are in every day, and on time!

school for my other finishes at 3.25

Didn't you send your other to preschool?
3 hours 5 days a week is pretty standard in school nurseries.
You don't have to send them but if you accept a place then good attendance is expected.

Some areas have mostly school nurseries with all morning or all afternoon sessions
Where we are it is a mix between private nurseries and committee run preschools, for ages 3 up (actually now 2.5). Where there is no set requirement, and some people will do 2/3 mornings and others will do whole days (school hours)

Some people need to read the post properly or educate themselves on school nurseries before making snarky comments

School nurseries normally do 5 x sessions a week. Some prefer to have a child who will attend all 5, but some are more flexible depending on demand. Mine all started on 3 days then built up to 5. The nursery couldn't care less if they didn't attend one day, but liked to know if they wouldn't be in because you'd decided to sod off to the beach instead