Do kids struggle starting school if they’ve not done a five day week at nursery/preschool beforehand?

[RAelao]

Wondering what to do with DD. She is due to start school next year in September (2026) and in January 2026 she is due to start nursery two days a week. Will this be enough to prepare her? Any experience and advice very welcome!

My little one did a year of two and a half days a week at nursery then went straight into full time school without batting an eyelid, I think it probably depends on the individual child to be honest.

Why are you waiting until Jan 26? Both of mine went to the village preschool from 3 years. They had a lovely time, and a great start to their education. They just did mornings.

I think it's a big jump in terms of time spent but having had kids in nursery 5 days a week before school, I'd say better to have the time with them. They are only so little once and you only get pre-school time with them once.

They might be particularly tired for the first term but that's better than the time you'd miss I say.

Presumably when you have her during the day you are engaging and doing stuff like putting on shoes / coat / eating nicely with knife and fork etc. which is the pre-school stuff that preschool will prepare them for.

My son went two days a week and settled into school fine. He had been going to the same nursery since he was 2 though

My DC1 only ever did 2 days a week of childcare (childminder then nursery) up until starting school and was absolutely fine. In fact they liked it more because the childcare days were sometimes very long whereas school finished at 3pm!

The kids that I saw who really struggled were those that had never been in any form of childcare before school and it was a huge leap to suddenly be there 5 days a week. But even they were fine after the first term was done.

My 2nd went to FT nursery and still struggled with the school transition, there's no real rule.

The older one only had a 3 day nursery week and went into school without a hitch.

Mine did 2/3 days at childminder, 1 day with granny, one day with me. I don't think they did more than 3 school days at pre-school a week from 3ish (then home to cm or granny).

Mine only did 3 hours a day at pre school and was absolutely fine.

I think it depends on the child either way. I work in preschool (not UK) and we often see a difference between the part timers and the children with low attendance, and the regular full time children. There is a gap in self care skills in particular as parents tend to do everything for children at home whereas our main focus in first year (of a 2 yr cycle) is teaching independence skills. If she hasn't had much preschool just make sure she knows how to zip open and close her bag, hang her coat, tidy away her stuff, put the bag on her own back and generally be self sufficient.

I think it depends on the child, but not doing 2 days a week from January until September won’t be very long to get them used to it and to do the preparation for reception if she’s never been in childcare before. Nursery does a lot of prep, and gets them used to doing circle time and mini projects in groups, phonics, getting used to going to the toilets in the setting by themselves, how lunch times work, as well as just getting used to being in the nursery all day.

Mine did 3 mornings and 1 day for her 15 hours at pre school. She had no trouble adjusting to school. She is 16 now and I would never regret the precious time we spent together. She had 4 terms though from Easter after she turned 3 and then a full academic year.

Dd did 4 mornings and settled fine.

DD was with a child minder 2 days a week from age 1, then at preschool for 2.5 days a week from age 3, then into Reception full time age 4.5. The school did staggered hours where you could have them in for part days, but I didn't do that, she was in full time.

She did say on her first day that it was ok, but she wasn't going to go back again

Shouldn't they be entitled to starting earlier than that if they start school next September? Should be starting September really.

Mine only went to preschool for 3 mornings a week prior to starting FT school and they were absolutely fine. Enjoy the time with them and don't feel pressured into putting them into a childcare setting more than you feel is right for her. I never regret that time with them.

Mine didn’t go to childcare at all.

We had one morning a week of playgroup (that’s a parent run thing here in Australia) which happened to be in the school and in the classroom that she would start in. That was the best thing.

Also various play dates with her playgroup friends. I also started swimming lessons at 3 years old.

Then came kindy for two days per week the year February she turned four (so there were some through year olds) and the following year, preschool, was full time. We started playgroup when she was two and she fully expected to start school the next year but I had to say she had another year of playgroup to go. Oh, the tantrums. She could see the kids out playing at recess and wanted to be one of them.

The rest of the time she was with me. Very old fashioned it it suited her.

My youngest DC starts school in September and hasn't done five days at nursery but has been doing 4 long days (8-6) since age 1 so I think that would be a reasonable transition. 3 days or less may be more difficult.

Not in my experience. One child went straight to full time reception without going to nursery beforehand (I was a sahm). Another did the traditional nursery to full time school because I was at uni full time. The third started nursery but then COVID hit and they didn't go back until they were in reception. All kids have never hated going to school, I've never had tears or upset at drop off and they've always been confident about going in.