Sending toddler to private nursery as long as possible?

[babysnark123]

My toddler can go to free nursery next September (2027) or stay in current nursery and go to reception 2028.

I see no reason to keep them at private nursery. They would be in a room with children just turned 2 and I just think they will have outgrown the nursey. There are 31 children in the nursey room, but not all attend every day etc. They also cater for sen children, and that's included in the 31 children.

Private nursery than care is just at one place and 51 weeks a year. Wrap around care is provided term time at the nursey attached to the school and I would use holiday club/annual leave the rest of the year

Aibu in thinking that a 4 year old is too old for private nursery?

That’s not the same. An early years qualified teacher is a different qualification to nursery staff quals.

Telling someone they are wrong when they’re spouting false information isn’t snarky ✌️

In an open plan purpose built area, which is part of an open plan school. Just felt it would be too much for DD.

Others have said this but our school has a nursery but doesn’t take nursery kids in the wraparound provision. Plus my older child wouldn’t have been able to cope with going to a provision with much older kids at that age. My younger may cope better with that.

Also nursery and private are both funded from the same government funding so there will be private nurseries that offer the same 30 hours free childcare (21 if you don’t do term time only) per week that the school nurseries do. Of course if yours doesn’t do the government scheme then you would need to find a different private setting that does.

My sons nursery is the same as you are describing so all kids aged 2-4 in the same room and I have also wondered whether he will get enough stimulation from that when he is aged 3.5/4. I’m very far from being a tiger mum but there’s no doubt my elder child (who was at a different, more structured nursery) got a lot out of the learning they did at that age. She was very ready for it and really thrived.

i can’t do school hours but also our school has two year groups per class so i feel like the nursery kids are pretty much starting reception a year early. That’s not my preference for him and i also don’t want to move him to another, more structured nursery and cause more disruption so he will stay where he is until reception despite my doubts. I know he is happy so that is the main thing.

It’s funny but I guess it shows how all nurseries are different. Our nursery has Blossoms (under 1) Caterpillars (1-2) Butterflies (2-3) and Owls (3-4.) So it’s quite nice really. Owls is the preschool part.

Well your question is wrong.

would it be wrong to keep them at your private nursery? Maybe

would it have been wrong to and was it to leave mine in? No. Because it was a different set up. It was JUST a pre school room.

The only reason I’m keeping mine in private nursery is to make the most of school holiday childcare two days a week as long as possible 😂

I kept mine at the private nursery. The school I wanted him to attend didn’t have a nursery st the time and I didn’t want to move him to then move him again. Also childcare, open all year round bar the week between Christmas and new year or term time only. Made my life easier for another 18 months keeping him at private nursery.

We sent ours to the preschool attached to the school on our non working days so they got used to being on the school site. It was only 8.45-3.15 so no use for work. We kept them in the private day nursery the other 3 days which had a busy 3+ setting and worked better for working parents.

If school nursery had offered longer hours, then I'd have used that - so long as wraparound care isn't through school. I'm not sure just turned 3 DD would have coped well with the y6 boys in the school hall.

Ah thanks

Mine stayed at private nursery because I couldn’t manage all the holidays (no holiday clubs offered for that age) and the hours meant I could actually work.

Their nursery had a room for pre-schoolers so from the Sept all the ones starting school the following September were in together and they prepared them (as best they could) for school.

No regrets, worked fine for us.

Eldest DD we kept at private nursery (they had a preschool room for 3+ yrs) so we didn't have to manage the school holidays. Was just more convenient.

But with younger DD, as we already had to manage the hols and we'd got to know the school, plus they offered wraparound care, we moved her to the school nursery. Saved thousands of pounds!!!

Our local holiday club takes them from 4 so we did have to manage the first few months of school nursery with annual leave and family until she turned 4.

Not sure what your question is?

We plan to keep DD in her private nursery until school. She is settled and happy, we can use our funded hours stretching them for full year provision when she turns 3 and pay for the additional hours we need which will be much less than our current nursery bill which is like a second mortgage payment. Scotland based if that makes a difference?

DD stayed at private nursery till she started reception. It worked better around our work hours, she was settled and happy, they had different rooms for different age groups so she wasn’t in with the babies or young toddlers and we didn’t know what primary she would actually get a place at till the April before she started so it didn’t seem like a good idea to uproot her to a new setting if it might not even be the school she ended up at.

Ds1 went to private nursery from 2.5 until he started school
Ds2, 4 and 5 went to state preschool from aged 2.
Ds3 didn't go anywhere.