Bit of a long one ref childcare

[gingajewel]

I am hoping this doesn’t turn out to long, so will try to keep it to the point.
My dd attends private nursery and has done since she was 6 months old, in sept I am moving her to a school nursery as I only need term time hours and her private nursery doesn’t offer this, therefore if I kept her in her private nursery it would cost me £350 a month where as a school nursery is essentially free.
I was going to take her out of her private nursery in July as we dont need childcare for the six weeks holiday, however on talking to the school nursery they have a four week settling in period, so basically the whole of September!
Me and oh cannot get the time off work, I can have 3 days and my oh can have 4 days. We have no one that can have her during September as the person who can have her in school holidays is back to work.
What would you do? I am thinking keep her at private nursery till the end of sept and for her settling in period pick her up from private nursery and take her to school nursery (I work ten mins away and work will allow me to do this) I just can’t see a way around this, we literally can’t have the whole of September off to accommodate the long settling in period!

Whatever you do, spend the next 12 months thinking about what you'll do if school settling in procedure is the same, because you won't have another option then. Settling in to preschool through October should be fine.

Its not the same for reception, my eldest already goes there and have never encountered this before!

I'm a childminder and I am usually pretty busy in September with children doing settling in sessions at school or preschool.
Could you find a childminder to help?

Lindy2 I hadn’t thought of a childminder, would they take a child just for a month?

Is she getting 30 hours funded? I would ask the school nursery how many of her hours they are claiming for in that term - I bet they are claiming the full amount, they can't then prevent you from accessing hours they are claiming.

I had this with one of my dc - and guess what, once I asked how we were going to be able to use all the funded hours we would miss it turned out he could go full time from the start.

Some childminders are happy to do short term contracts. I will id I have an available place.
September is also often a month where childminders have less children on their rolls as children who have been attending move on to school but their place has not yet been filled with a younger child.

I’d compare the cost of a child minder or babysitter for the one month settling in period with the cost of keeping her in her current setting until the end of September and do whatever is easiest and cheapest. Assuming there are no other considerations (would she and you enjoy the 6 weeks off together, would it be beneficial to stay in a routine right up until she is fully settled into the new place etc etc).

Thankyou all, I will ask the school about the 30 hours funded, I hadn’t thought of it like that, so that is something to ask them!
Tbh I’m not off in the six weeks, so it makes no difference to me if she is in nursery or not, it is a family member who would have had her who already has my eldest dd in school holidays.
I think I will keep her in nursery for the extra time, from July till the end of September, it’s just so frustrating! Trying to find somewhere that did 30 hours term time only and then we did a month settling in period! It’s so hard when both of you work!