Childcare after nursery

[coldandflu]

Hi sorry if I'm not writing in the right place and it seems so obvious but I'm just after some advice

My toddler is 2 in November.

Until what month will he be in nursery and what do I do for childcare?

Im a single parent, no support and work full time.

He will almost certainly get a place at a local school which is less than 10 mins walk from our house.

What do I do for childcare outside of these hours and outside of term time.

I get 33 days plus bank holidays as annual leave. I do have family that I could leave him with, but that's not a certain.

I don't claim UC, so would be tax free childcare.

They don’t. The 30 hours is means tested.

@coldandflu you can use which ever nursery you want from now until he is ready to go to school. Right up until the summer before he starts school in September. All nurseries accept the funding.

When he starts school at age 4 or 5 (whenever the birthday is) then you will have to use the before and after school clubs or a child minder.

We have a child minder so I drop at 8, she walks them to school at 9, she picks up at 3 and has them until 5pm.
I have to pay for this, as you would do if you were using school clubs.

There is no funding once they reach school age. You can still use the tax free childcare account to pay for the child minder or school clubs.

But yeh, it's basically up to you to look for a child minder or utilise the school wrap around care (if they provide it?)

Your child is eligible to start school/state nursery the term after their 3rd birthday. Intake is usually September, January and Easter.

they will possibly only be offered morning (8:30 to 12:00) or afternoon (12:30 to 3:00), but each nursery differ and you may find a full day (8:30 to 3:00).

to manage the wrap around care, you will need to source a childminder who drops off and collects from the school, as most breakfast and afterschool clubs won’t accept your child until they start reception class full time. It is worth sourcing a childminder now, as when they start reception class, the schools will have them
in on staggered starts, and this can sometimes last for the first two to three weeks.
Hope this helps!

I don’t think your going to get the answer your looking for on here. The situation varies massively by area. Out of our 5 local primary schools only one has a nursery school attached and that’s only recently opened. You need to approach your local authority or schools in your local area directly. Just take a look on the website. The system is vastly different across the country.

I kept my twins in private nursery until they started reception at 4, there was no way I could manage the shorter days and only term time back then. Once they start reception there’s wrap around care from 8am - 5.30pm. I’d assume the same goes for school nursery with wrap around it’s just the term time aspect to consider, I wanted to wait as long as I could till I needed to manage only term time, plus if they enjoy the nursery they’re at why change, he’ll be with all the same aged pre schoolers in nursery till they “graduate”

Different settings offer different things, my son went to a private nursery until he started school, however that setting had 4 rooms from babies, then a couple of rooms in between then finally preschoolers so divided them up by age a lot more.
If you are concerned about their current setting not being suitable up to age 4 then you may need to consider moving them, some schools have a preschool attached, however a lot of these only offer limited sessions, some may also have waiting lists, I would probably start phoning around some of them to see what they offer. However there is nothing to stop them remaining in their current setting.

I don’t know much about costs of preschool/ state nurseries, but I don’t believe that there are any / many completely free ones like school is.

and I would presume it would depend on how many hours/ day they do, as it’s not mandatory to
do Mon- Fri 9-3 till they start school.

But free education (school) will presumably be sept 2028 for your child if my maths is correct. And then you will need to pay for wraparound care/ child Minder / after school activities if you need child care outside of the 9-3 hours

Your post is a little hard to follow but I think I’ve understood.

This is the thing, outside of private nursery and childminders, the hours of local authority nurseries/preschools simply don’t suit the needs of most working parents. My daughter remained in a private nursery from 10 months right up still she started primary school. Funded hours kicked in when she was 3 (not sure what current funded provision looks like, this was 8 years ago) but it still wasn’t ‘free’, far from it. Funded hours only cover term time nursery, so there is still a monthly fee to cover the rest of the year: for us this still amounted to about £200 a month. Where I am three year olds in local authority nurseries only get a morning or afternoon so that’s even worse! I mean who works 8:45-11:30??? It does go up to 9-3 for four year olds I think.
So you’ll need to either keep him in private nursery or try for a local authority place and get family or a childminder to collect him and keep him till you finish work

My children's school nursery offered morning (9.00 - 11.30) or afternoon (1.00 - 3.30) term time only from age 3. Some school nurseries may offer full days but if you're working full time, you'll need a childminder for after school hours and possibly to drop off in the morning, and school holidays. Or you can keep your child in private nursery until he's 4 and starts Reception.

Depends where you are and what your local/ selected nursery has in place.

I’m in scotland..
My children go to a private nursery. My 3.5 year old uses funded hours during term time, when I was at work they went 3 days, 2 of these were long days and nursery were happy to use funded hours for the wrap around. They do not spread the funded hours all year round. Other nurseries in my area do spread the funded year round. Im currently on mat leave and older child goes 4 days a week and will continue this till the summer where he will only go on my working days. Then start school in august next year at 4.5. My chosen school do a breakfast club, no after school club so we will be relying on gran parents for the 1-2 days a week I’ll be at work.

He also received funded from the Monday after his 3rd birthday, not the term after.

Baby will start at 1 year old. They’ve been on the waiting list since I was around 20 weeks pregnant.

contact nursery’s and see what they’re open, what extras you need to pay for (we pay £10 a day term time for extracurricular activities), how they spread funding.

Just to give you an idea OP, mine went to a nursery at a school from their third birthday. Usual drop off times are 08.45 and pick up is 3.15pm however ours do breakfast and after school club - drop off from 07.30 and pick up at 6.00pm however these clubs are £3 for breakfast club & £3 for after school club, so if you was to use the 07.30-6.00pm daily it would cost an additional £6, or you can just use one of either breakfast or afterschool club for £3. It's not limited how often you can use this service.
Out of term time you would need your own arrangements.
You would qualify for 30 hours free in nursery (can opt to use school nurseries or private) if you are working 16 hours a week. They can go to school nurseries from their 3rd birthday so if you was to use a school nursery you can put them in all day.
I can't comment on before the age of 3 as mine never used private nurseries, I just used the state nursery option in a achool once they were 3.
Anything you use over 30 hours in a private nursery you have to pay for, but it's my understanding the government pay a certain amount towards that, but as I said I'm not up to date on that side of things as I never claimed 30 hours or needed more, as I work under 16 hours so didn't qualify for 30 hours. My reasoning was I wasn't going to pay for additional childcare as there was no point as i woukd have been out of pocket.

Only some schools have nurseries attached and they don't tend to be free anymore!
It's only free from September after 4 years for the reception years these days!
Sorry! Also a single parent it's tough. I was lucky my son being a July baby meant he went a year sooner than those who are oldest in the year like yours. It's brutal x

There are no state nurseries

There are local authority run nurseries.

For you it would be the September after bub is 3. As your school yeR starts September after your bub is 4.
If you can find a school with an attached nursery (many don't do this anymore), and if you get accepted (demand will be very high). Some areas, locations in UK don't have them at all. It'll be dependant on your area, learning authority etc.
My schools attached nursery is private and no different in costs to the nursery your using now, just close to school gates. So I kept him in his normal nursery preschool as I didn't want the disruption.
But there are no state (subsided) preschool nurseries in the whole of my county. Not like when I was at school. You'll be very lucky to find one tbh. 🤞🏻 Good luck though.

Ring your council and ask for advice on pre-schools and where you can locate this as it’s different everywhere

Your child can start school the term after their 4th birthday. School is free from 9-3 ish (depending on the school hours of that school). Anything outside of this you will need to find and pay for. So usually a breakfast club, after school club and then holiday clubs.

up until this age you can choose where your child goes. If you’d prefer them to go to a state nursery (pre school), then this is usually from age 3. It varies and costs vary too. Because it is 9-3 or even shorter, you will need to find extra childcare - as if they are at school.

if you’d work FT I would keep them in your current nursery as it’s much easier!! Once they start school it’s quite tricky to juggle - make sure you find a primary school that has good breakfast clubs and after school clubs! Ideally a holiday club too - but these can be found elsewhere.

if you don’t like your child at 4 being with 2yeat olds, could you look at another private nursery that is bigger and so has three age groups?

OP you have to apply for school nursery your not guaranteed a place at your local one. Do not also assume that they are 9-3pm in our area the sessions are split so 8-1pm and 1-6pm. With the funded hours you get 6 sessions a week (so covers 3 days). This will be dependent on your local nursery.

In terms of wrap around care if 9-3pm then it's a childminder paid ontop of this and then holidays you would pay for childminder again.

If already in private nursery then find out if your nursery accepts funded hours. It usually drops the bill but is usually split over the year so it works out as 2ish days per week and you pay the subsequent hours and sundries (snack/arts/outings).

For us both our DSs remain in private setting as the wrap around care of childminder and holidays arouns the school nursery worked out more then staying in private nursery.

Just to add incase you wasn't aware or this hasn't already been mentioned, getting a place at a pre school doesn't mean that your DC will be allocated a place at that school for reception. They will still need to apply for reception through the LA and will not be prioritised because they are already there.