Childminder v pre school

[Hann376]

recently moved our 2 year old from nursery to childminder as she never took to a nursery setting and I think she prefers it.

shes an autumn baby so wouldn’t be able to start at her local pre school until she’s almost 4 (would be pre school in September 2028 and start reception in September 2029).

I don’t want her to get bored at childminders but also don’t want to keep moving her around.

She’s quite a shy child and I’m worried that if she doesn’t start pre school until 4 then half the kids that will be in her school year will have already been there a year and she’ll find it harder to make friends, but then would be even harder if she didn’t do the pre school for a year before reception.

wondering whether it’s better to:

a) keep her at childminder until she’s almost 4 and then her local primary school pre school for a year

b) move her to a nursery (not attached to a school) from age 3-4 and then pre school from age 4 for a year

c) move her to nursery from age 3 until she starts school reception

any views welcome thank you :)

By preschool do you mean the school nursery or is it unconnected to the school?
Ideally I’d do childminder and then school nursery, where one exists, but only if you can work with what are likely to be shorter hours and term time only. I wouldn’t move a child multiple times unless it was totally unavoidable e.g. house move or closure.

Yes there is a nursery attached to our local primary.

I just didn’t want her to get bored or be behind with social development as she would start almost a year later than summer born children who would be in her year

Are you in England? Because the summer born children in her school year will be almost a year younger (so only just turned 3) when she starts preachool. They wont have been there a year already.

And social development is perfectly good at a childminders too, in fact usually more confident due to the high adult/ child ratio.

Oh yes that’s correct we are in England

But am I right in thinking summer born children would be in pre school for almost 2 years before starting school and autumn born children would only be in for a year ?

GD has a September birthday and started school nursery the term after her third birthday, so in January. She'll have 5 school terms in nursery and will be a few days off her 5th birthday when she starts reception. The children who are Summer born start in September after their third birthday and go into reception the September after their 4th birthday, so have a year in nursery, which I think is the opposite to what youre suggesting. This is the same arrangement for every school based nursery in our city.
Can you check the nursery/preschool admission arrangements again?

No, the other way around. Summer born children start reception at just turned 4, autumn chilsren will be almost 5. Early education funding starts the term after they turn 3.

My son went to a childminder until he started school, I just opted for 1 day at the school nursery for the term before he started. He’s thrived and the childminder was far better for him than nursery due to all the attention he got, trips out etc. Due to us moving areas my youngest only went to the childminder until he was 2.5 and is happy at nursery, but if you have just moved her I would avoid any change and keep her somewhere consistent until school starts.

Typically in English school nurseries all the kids start at the same time which is the September after their 3rd birthday and move on to reception en masse the following year. Autumn born kids will be almost 4 and summer borns barely 3 but regardless of when their birthday falls they’re all there for one academic year.
Might be worth checking with the school?

My friend’s summer-born daughter just started Reception. The girl hated nursery, to the point of crying hysterically every night at the prospect of going in the next morning. This was beyond regular settling-in issues, it was genuinely traumatic for her, so her mum pulled her out and got her a full-time childminder. The girl has been with a childminder from age 2 to 4 and has never been to nursery nor preschool. Naturally her mum was worried about how she’d cope at school.

Well, the girl loves school, she’s thriving, and she’s extremely confident and sociable.

Not sending your daughter to nursery won’t be the catastrophe you might think it will be.

Can you find out the logistics at your preferred school? My daughter has just started Reception, having attended pre school for a year prior. Of:the 24 in her class, 21 were at the pre school.

Assuming it’s a school nursery they typically start either the term after they turn 3 or the following September .

Im a childminder and I say childminder until term after 3rd birthday then school nursery is the ideal situation for 2 reasons

1. the funding is rubbish age 3+ for childminders - most in my area no longer take 3 yr olds.
2. we can never give them that whole class feel (unless it’s a childminder working with two assistants). In my setting they are always going to have loads of attention as it’s 1:3 ratio. I feel they benefit from being one of many do that at reception it’s not a shock.

in terms of learning we follow the same curriculum - my local primary often tell me that my minded children are ahead of many of their peers on certain things like number recognition and taking care of themselves etc. But it just depends on the nursery/childminder. A childminder will more than likely have your child outdoors and in the community more and I think there are benefits to this. But there are many shapes and sizes of early years and once at school they all blend and catch up/fall into place . Autumn borns will have more time in early educational settings, not less.

in the olden days pre funding Id have children all the way to school. A lot of my 4 yr olds went to reception knowing how to read and at least write their name but mostly more. They could all dress themselves etc - a childminder or any early years setting should adapt the learning for their age group and if they don’t you can question it!