Combining Nursery/Reception

[Konfooz]

We have recently moved abroad from England are looking at preschool/nursery for our daughter who is 3.5 (so in the UK she’d be starting reception next year)

She hasn’t been to nursery before. We saw one which says they do nursery and reception as a class together. This is a private international school btw and the local system is the same ages/years as the UK.

So she’ll be in a class with children aged 3-5, with the current cohort mainly already being 4 and having been to the same class last year. Is this common at this age? It’s the first I’ve heard of it as usually they’re separate.

Any views? AIBU that this seems too big an age range for this age?

I've known schools do this in London when they have low numbers. There are usually more adults e.g 1 teacher and maybe 2 TAs, so often they split the group up e.g. the teacher will have the Reception children on the carpet for phonics whilst the nursery children play outside. If it's done well, I think it's fine, and there can be advantages to being in a class where a large chunk already know the rules and routines.

It’s called a Foundation Unit and it’s very common. I have taught in one. It works really well . I have children coming up to me now in Yr 1 who are free readers and writing compound sentences because they have had teacher input from age 2. It also makes the school transition super simple because there isn’t one!

In Scotland we start school between 4.5-5 so 3-5 nurseries are the norm here. I wouldn’t be concerned about this at all :)

Some local schools have foundation units, works well. Is there a reason she never went to nursery?

Thank you all. I should add their ethos is no reading/phonics etc until age 6 so they wouldn’t be doing that at all there!

Its 3 classes of 20 kids, each with a teacher and a TA.

She’s 3.5 and it wasn’t compulsory in the UK
as school starts from reception. So we always planned for her to go from the September in the year before (which is now).

As PP, it's called a Foundation Unit in England and is usually very beneficial for the children. For the Reception children the system ensures that they are learning gthrough structured play, the majority of the time as they should be. IIWY, I would jump at the chance.

It’s what in the US would be called preschool and pre-k, with kindergarten starting more 5-6, which Y1 for us. It wouldn’t put me off unless it was very academic. If it was play-based and lots of time outside, I’d not see it as hugely different to the school based nurseries attached to reception classes in some UK schools.

Thank you. It’s totally play based!

That is exactly the terminology they are using :)