My 3 year old at big school nursery - worried he’s too young

[mythreeyr]

My just turned three year old has recently joined a school nursery at a through school.

Before he joined, he was at a day nursery since he was a baby. The day nursery was very small. Small rooms, lots of gates going into the garden - big door system with security cameras and door bells to let you in.

it felt secure. The garden was small and all completely gated off…

the school he’s started at is absolutely huge. Huge playground, Forrest, play areas etc.

during the school day he’s in his nursery room and outdoor area which I’m not worried about. He goes to have lunch in the lunch hall which is also fine as it’s nearby.

but the after school club is my worry. There are children from nursery to year 2 who attend. It’s free flow. Some kids are outside in the yard riding little bikes, others are in the playground near a Forrest and others are inside just running around between lots of classrooms and the lunch hall. It just seems really big for him.

security wise, you just walk up to the door, which the kids can open ( they don’t, but they can ). A member of staff is usually in the room where you pick them up, but sometimes distracted doing stuff with the kids.

it’s absolutely fine for older kids. My older son is at this school too and I’m not worried. But my little one is still so all over the place, I am worried he’ll get lost. The teachers need to supervise him constantly- not like a child in year 1 or 2 of even reception. My older son was nearly 4 when he started so just seemed a bit less ‘ all over the place ‘… my little one is a little menace and loves opening and closing doors and that kind of thing.

It’s a great school, I’m just worried that he may get lost of the teachers will really lose patience with him. He’s a clever little guy, but he’s still in that dangerous phase where you do need to watch him all the time.

does anyone else have experience here, sending a child in this kind of phase to a very big school? Will the teachers be ok watching him so closely ? He’s the youngest child in the school at the moment.

Do you think ? I think my older child really flourished at the school nursery. He started going to one when he was 2 years old. Then switched to the one my little one is going to when he was 3 and a half- almost 4.

you’re right in saying the expectation is more in some ways, but also less in other ways. It’s actually quite different. Had I been happy with the day nurseries my kids were at, I would have left them there but I wasn’t overly happy.

the teachers are just so different and generally more qualified than at day nurseries, is my impression from the ones I know. At the school nurseries there are qualified teachers leading the class. At the day nurseries they didn’t have qualified teachers.

I also like that they start introducing phonics a couple of terms before reception. I think this really helped my older one, slowly get aquatinted.

the transition from nursery to reception was also really easy for my older child because he was so familiar with the setting and even had some of the same teachers and friends from nursery.

hence the decision to also send my little one there. I’m sure there are amazing day nurseries out there but the ones my kids were at were good, but I wasn’t 100 percent with some of the things. But they did feel very safe, so there is that !

whatever the setting they should follow EYFS guidance

Both days nurseries and school nurseries follow the same eyfs framework so there should be no difference in what they are learning.

Both of our children started school nursery shortly after turning 3 and they absolutely loved it. However in our case the nursery was separate to the main school and nursery children couldn't attend after school club. Could you look for a childminder to pick him up?
I would be concerned about security though. Our school has locked gates and high-ish fence around the playground & field.

Yes, I mean in terms of things like having to wear uniforms, lower staff ratios, just a slightly less “caring” and more “educating” environment. But the day nursery she went to was wonderful, with really experienced early years practitioners, if I didn’t feel that way about it I might have chosen differently. I also preferred the big transition from one setting to another to happen at when she was a bit older, at 4 rather than 3.

They all follow the same EYFS curriculum anyway so I certainly don’t think she was held back on anything like phonics. About half her class went to the school nursery and half came from day nurseries or childminders, and there was no difference between the two cohorts in terms of learning/ability/performance that I could tell.

It’s the wraparound care part of your situation that I wouldn’t like though, more than the main school nursery part. I don’t think school after school clubs are well set up for 3 year olds. My DD’s is run by an external company and it’s great, she has a fantastic time, but I don’t think it would have been right for her at 3.

You might be surprised how well he does OP. I’m sure the staff will be looking out for the tiny ones a bit more.
My daughter started Maternelle (like school nursery in France) the week before she turned three and she in fact spoke very little of the language and has come on leaps and bounds. The children in halte garderie (afterschool club) all seem to have a brilliant time having free range of the school- same set up three years old to six years old and the bigger kids look out for the small ones too.

The main gate/door at a school, after school club, nursery, preschool, whatever should always be secure. Our school has a huge fence and a stone wall and a gate and you have to ring the bell for a member of staff to come let you in (or as is more often the case, bring your child to you). That is the case whether they are in reception or year 6.

Afterschool club and preschool are different building, locked glass doors that can only be opened with staff key cards. Again, they bring your child to the door.

If anyone can walk in from the street and children can let themselves out, that’s a huge red flag and needs to be reported to Ofsted.

All the rest of it sounds fine. The free flow is great for them. But I wouldn’t have moved him from a nursery where he was settled, that would have been fine until school age.

In a nursery attached to a school they will be treated as a seperate unit amd treated as nursery children.. They are not trainee reception children. Should be fine and a lovely secure experience.

My children go to a large 3 form entry primary school, around 650 children, which accepts children from 2yo to daycare. All children can go to wraparound care from 7.15am to 6pm including the 2yos (my dd started at 2 and did full days).

For the first and last hour of the day, when the numbers of children are greatly reduced and there are few under 5s in wraparound care, they mix all ages. However, normally EYFS, nursery and daycare were kept separate to the rest of daycare in a different area of the school. The ratios need to be adhered to and this is hard to do when you mix EYFS with other children.