Securing a place for second DC

[Teapleasemilknosugar]

So my toddler is in a nursery for 2 days a week. Loves it there, has adored going and been totally happy attending since 11m (now 2.5yrs).

Baby number 2 is arriving imminently. I am taking a year for Mat Leave and the toddler is still going to continue nursery during that time.

I've approached the nursery for a space for baby number 2 from Easter 2024, happy to pay a deposit now to secure the place etc, so both DC would then attend same nursery on the same days when I go back to work. They have said they only guarantee spaces for September this year and can't guarantee a space from Easter 2024 (even if we were to pay the deposit).

How do others handle this situation? Is it the same in other nurseries too? It's a private nursery, year round, not attached to a school or restricted to term times.

Is our only option to find a new nursery setting for both DC?

what?!?! How does that even work?????

No it was a response to you. I can't check in with them after Christmas break, it'll be too late due to notice periods at work.

This is why I'm wondering if all private nurseries are the same or what other working families do?!

I don't think private nurseries have operated like this but I'd imagine that with rising costs they're looking to maximise numbers so they're not losing out in revenue by having months and months with 'space' that they're holding for a child starting months later. Could you go on a waiting list from September? They may not fill any gels in September anyway.

That's not the same as our nursery, thank goodness, but I do think it's quite common as a few people I know have to do double drop offs due to not getting second child into the first nursery initially.

Not normal in my experience. Surely they move the babies from the baby room all the time when they reach the right sort of age/milestones for the next room and therefore in theory there would never be a huge wait for spaces.

If they cannot promise a space for your child then unfortunately you will need to look for other spaces which will be able to take both children. It's no good posters saying wait until December before checking as that will then be too late for looking at alternative settings should the current nursery not have space in the baby room.

I’ve just replied to myself like a muppet

Definitely isn’t normal at any nursery i
know of. Maybe just drop in the office next time you are there and double check they know you were asking about the baby and
theu don’t think you meaN for a funded nursery place for the toddler

Not normal at our nursery. We paid the deposit and booked DD's place last May/June and she starts next month.

Normal at my children’s nursery I’m afraid - luckily for me I was due back at work in September anyway so it worked out for me.

For our nursery they have 4 rooms and keep kids basically in year groups - so the current pre-school room is all the kids due to start school this September and in Aug/Sept as they all leave all the other age groups will move up a room.

How does that realistically work for the baby room though? I get having children who are preschool age together especially if they get an influx at 3 which is common and ours also has an eyfs room for those due to start school to use but surely that doesn't work as easily with babies who won't all be at around the same sort of level and who won't all need to start at the same age.

I would look into a different nursery for both of them if they can't give place. Unless you had settling issues.

The alternative isn't "leave work" though. It's "find another provider"

This is why I was asking - if finding another provider is our only option. Then subsequently wondering if all other nurseries operate with the same model, then I'll have the same issue even with other providers.

Is it a regional thing I wonder, to those that say it isn't normal? 🤷 (I'm SE based).

Im london and this is normal ime. There are always people wanting a space now, it's not financially viable to leave them vacant.

Ive moved a little bit in nursery years and this is my experience - 2 months before, no nurseries have 2 x age group slots. Then i basically call every week/few days getting closer to the move to "check the situation". Every time it's worked out and i have got the spaces but literally just the week before.

And in my DD current nursery she's been moved up a bit early to allow space lower down the age classes (i.e. she joined the preschool room at 2)

I think it’s common in popular nurseries which are basically full.

look at it this way: currently, they’re probably full. The vast majority of those kids will be there until august/September, when around 1/3 of them will all leave at once to start school. At this point, they have 1/3 of their spaces open. They have a choice - fill those immediately with children from the waiting list, or hold spaces for children who want to start a few months later. From their point of view, OF COURSE they’ll fill those spaces immediately. Then they are full again, making maximum profit, until the following September, when the cycle starts again. If children leave at other times of year, spaces will come up, but this will be rare. If babies want to start at other points in the year, this will only be able to happen if there are random spaces - if not, they’ll join the waiting list and probably get to join in the September.

the only reason I can see a nursery wouldn’t work like this would be if a) they’re not full or b) they have a lot of movement of children. This may be if parents aren’t happy with the nursery so pull them out, if they don’t accept funded hours (so parent pulls kid out term after they turn 3 to use elsewhere), or if it’s an area with high mobility for some reason .

I suppose some nurseries might hold spaces open for 6-7 months for siblings but they’d be throwing away thousands so seems unlikely?

This is normal at my dd's nursery too, NW. I guess it makes sense because they only lose children to school in September, so everything works on an academic year basis. It scuppered me with DD as I went back in may, so she went to another nursery may-august and then started there in September. This time I was fortunate to be able to time mat leave so that my ds will start there in September.

Just be patient. You are still pregnant ffs.
I say this as someone based in west london who's DD started private nursery this week.
The nursery was supposedly fully booked until 2024 🥴. Needless to say peopled circumstances changed (house moves, money worries, new pregnancies etc) and she got the FT place we wanted.

I actually prefer your nursery's approach because it's so annoying when people take multiple waitlist spots as it makes it difficult to plan.

I did this exact same thing. Called or emailed every week until they confirmed the FT space .

Initially they were telling me no space till Jan 24 🥴. But every few months they were able to offer an extra day then 1 month before DD was due to start we finally were confirmed FT

There tends to be more flexibility with babies at our nursery we were also looking at an Easter 2024 start. No places for older children until September 2024 when we put baby’s name down at 8 weeks pregnant (due in June).

I would find this very stressful. I registered baby 2 at nursery when I was 8 weeks pregnant. He's starting in September and we have huge waiting lists and I wanted them at same nursery obviously. I paid deposit. Job done

I guess this means there is a lot of competition for nursery places where you are.
Financially it is better for the nursery to fill all places in September than to hold some back for Christmas/Easter.
It's still possible someone will leave mid year though and a space will come up.

I'd say your options are either:
1.take a place up in September even though you don't need it yet
2.wait until after Christmas and just check every week until a place hopefully becomes available
3.try to find another nursery that has spaces for both children at Easter
4.put the baby somewhere temporarily until September 2024

Option 1 is safest though most expensive if you don't need the space yet. 2 is risky but you could ask the nursery how often spaces become available during the year.
Option 3 - may be difficult to find somewhere with 2 spaces and then the question is, why in an area with a shortage of places would somewhere have 2 available?
Option 4 - may also be difficult to find as most nurseries and childminders will not want to take a child temporarily if they can fill places easily. You may have to shell out £££ for a temp nanny.

But there’s constant children moving up rooms to create space all year round surley? A baby who starts at 9 months moves to the next room
around 13months at our nursery, then move again at years and again at 3 years.

I think it’s super odd and our nursery doesn’t operate like this. Not quite sure what PPs are on about…..

I should add our nursery has a massive wait list and you put their name down when pregnant to guarantee a place.