30 Hours Free / Private Nursery / Nursery School / Wraparound

[PrincessMarm]

Hello mums,

I am after some advice because I have not managed to get anything sensible from the internet or my sons current nursery. Apologies, this is going to be quite long winded, but please stick with it.

So, my son is 2 (3 in March) and is currently in private nursery.

We are currently in the process of buying / selling our house and will be moving to a different area so have not applied for and have missed the deadline for 'school'.

However, i do not understand him going to school at 3, I thought they started when they are 5? And if he does go to school at 3, is it full time? As I have heard it is only a couple of hours per day (even though he has been full time in nursery since he was 1), and how do people cope with children only having childcare for a couple of hours a day with work etc?

Also, is he eligible for the 30 hours free if he is in a state school nursery? Is this the point, because it's free anyway?

Or can he stay in his current nursery and have 30 hours free?

Lastly, I have been looking in our new 'area' and the primary school we would like to send him to starts at reception? So does he just stay in private nursery?

We both work full time and hours at private nursery are excellent, which is a huge bonus for us as it doesn't put a strain on either of our working days, especially holidays etc. However, it does put a strain on our bank balance!

Please, any advice is greatly welcomed, as I am super confused.

Thank you in advance!!!!!

You do not have to send your child to nursery school. You can keep him at a private day nursery and recieve his 30 hours free there until school age (4/5 years)
Nursery schools are optional and are usually only a few hours a day or half days. This didnt work for our working hours so our child stayed at private day nursery until reception at school. Hope that helps

Private nurserys, private schools and nursery/preschool classes in state schools all follow the same EYFS curriculum.

You get 15hrs/30hrs term time (dependent on parental income/employment) from the term after they turn 3 to the September after they turn 4. Then they go into Reception. This is the main entry point for school. You apply the January of that year.

The 30hrs is termtime only... some private nurseries will spread it so its 22hrs a week roughly.

It won't be completely free in private nurseries... you pay for the other hours plus food etc.

School nursery, when they are 3 and turning 4 that year. So it would be next Sep he could go to a school nursery.

You can use his 30 hours in any setting, school nursery, childminder, private nursery.

We have kept our son at private nursery using his 30 hours and he'll go to school in reception.
Works better for us regarding work and we all love it there.
The 30 hours a week is term time only, we spread the hours out over the year so he can go every week for 22 hours.
We are lucky we don't have to pay any extra and no extra for food etc.
So worth checking with your current nursery their policy around this.

It's worth noting that the amount the Government pays private nurseries for the 'free' hours is not really enough to cover the cost of providing them. I think this is the reason that many charge for 'extras' and/or offer only certain set sessions for the 'free' hours (rather than being able to spread them as you wish). Ours only offered morning or afternoon sessions so any child staying for both had to pay for an extra hour at lunch time (no option to leave an hour earlier and not pay for lunch time) and for food. It feels a bit unfair when you are a parent who has been offered funded child care but having seen the expenses of a good nursery I can understand why they have to do this.