They should really go to school at 3...

[Thecomfortador]

So says my mil. I'm returning to work in Jan, DS1 will be 3 and Ds2 9 months. I think we've got a suitable arrangement to compress 3 yo's 30 funded hours into 2.5 days at nursery over 45 weeks. Younger one can start there too and we won't need a childminder.

But will older one be missing out not going to a school nursery? What do they do there that they don't do at private nursery? I would be grateful for any experiences or insight.

School nurseries are good if it secures a place at the school or if the child might need to settle and make friendships with classmates.

I never sent mine to a school nursery. I don't regret it. She had a lovely time where she was. There were less children than there would have been at a school one in my mind that's a plus. It was more intimate. They spend years at school.

Im a big fan of school nurseries. They are staffed by qualified teachers with QTS and I think this can be a great advantage to their play based learning at 3.

Our local schools don't have nurseries! Both of mine have gotten on completely fine at nursery and school (my eldest).

I don’t think it makes a difference at all, only the quality of the settings do.

My eldest went to a normal run of the mill nursery and my youngest is at the school nursery.

I think the only benefit is the ease of transition into reception as they will probably know loads of the kids, and it's not a new building, they already go there.

Other than that, zilch in my experience.

Sending a child to school nursery doesn't secure a place at state schools; you have to apply the same was as everyone else.

Neither of mine went to school nursery, just the same private nursery from babyhood-4. It had a separate foundation stage room so they did the phonics and stuff there but I didn't mind what they did really, and they were both more than ready for school.

Some interesting responses, thank you. As far as I know the school nursery doesn't guarantee a place at the school proper. There are 13 nursery places and it's a 3 class entry in reception so it shouldn't make a huge difference.

Interesting about the quality of teaching - I hadn't considered that they would be QTS in the school setting. That said if he's at home half the week maybe I can educate myself on how to consolidate learning with him and help him along.

Socially - yes settling in is a big issue for ds1. He's timid at first and took 3 months to settle in to nursery. Partly why I don't want to take him out when he's happy and have to introduce a school and a childminder at once. Hopefully he'll be able to cope with this better at nearly 5. But yes to making friends, that's an obvious disadvantage as nursery is not even close to school catchment so no-one he knows is likely to go there.

Thanks for the different perspectives, good to hear some have got on perfectly fine without school nursery too.

I won’t be using a school nursery. My childminder has QTS and so I will keep him there till school age. I’ve had lots of comments about him missing out on not being in a nursery but I don’t worry about them.

It depend s on your needs as a family as well... I didnt send ds tp school nursery as we maybe not get a place in reception - (good job as we didnt)
Also ratio of staff is only 2 - 30 kids - much higher in a nursery...
made no difference when he started school, class was about 50/50 this that had been to nursery and those that hadnt -with a 3 form entry would be surprised if they are all at the school nursery..

I wanted to have more time with him before school- for others the school nursery only did half days not full days ....

I would possibly think about moving him to nursery nearere th school if he was more likely to meet kids going to the school but otherwise leave him where he is happy....

All childcare settings work in the same way to the same standards (EYFS) and inspected by the same body(Ofsted in England) including school nurseries.
Staffing ratios are higher in other settings unless their is an early years teacher....many private nurseries and childminders have early years teaching status (but childminding ratios are still low).
As others say it about familiarity with the building and knowing a few friends.

30 hours can be used at any type of setting, including childminders it can be split between 2 types or stretched over the year to 22 hours, except at school who are term time only and always take at least 15 hours with some taking 30.

If childcare while at work is the priority then I don't think school nurseries are cost effect childcare options. My dcs when to the same private nursery until they started school and it did them no harm. The certainly didn't seem to be anywhere behind their class mates. The school we chose didn't have a school nursery so friendships might have been different if it had.