I have a playgroup dilemma, can anyone make up my mind for me?

[mummylonglegs]

I'm useless at making decisions, convinced I'll always make the wrong one.

Dd's 3 in a week. This September she started at a lovely playgroup 5 mornings a week for 2.5 hours a session and she's settled really well considering she's rather shy and has never really left me before. Unfortunately this playgroup is now going to close down at Christmas due to various unforseeable reasons and I've been trying to find her somewhere else to go in January. Because she's born in October and I'm in a busy over-subscribed part of SE London, none of the schools will consider her until next September. The nurseries are very expensive and to be honest not that great. But I have found another playgroup a bit further afield than I'd like and not as nice as this one but it's fine. The thing is, they take kids according to age, so the oldest on the list gets first option regardless how long a child's been waiting for a place. I put dd's name down and they said she'd be the oldest on their list at the moment and will have 2 mornings for her mid-October.

So ... dilemma part ... do I take her out of the nice playgroup where she has 5 mornings? Or do I risk there being another vacancy after Christmas. The playgroup leader of the new place said why don't I ask the place she's at now if she can stay there but go to the new place for the 2 mornings. Do you think they'd agree? Would that totally confuse dd? What would you do?

I think phasing her withdrawal from the old place before it closes down (how sad, mll) with starting at the new one and hopefully settling and making friends, might help your dd a lot.
you say nurseries are expensive locally. Does your LEA not give "vouchers" to offset some of the costs? I don't think you are my borough, which is generous in its allocation, but surely you will get some help?

I think I would try to arrange for her to spend 2 mornings a week at the new playgroup while keeping her at the older one for the remaining 3 days. That way she gets the benefits of the current place while allowing her to get used to the new one.

As Marina says, you should get help with the cost soon anyway. Iff dd is 3 in October then she should be eligible for 5 x 2.5hr free sessions per week from January (ie the term after she turns 3).

HI Coppertop and Marina

Well, the nurseries I've visited have said she'd only get the equivalent of £30 a week which would be roughly two morning sessions or a full day.

I'm in Southwark Marina.

The tightwads mll . I did wonder because Lewisham and Greenwich seem to be generous in this respect and I am surprised Southwark are not. They must have their share of under-fives who really do need extra help to get them into nursery.
It's a hike but there are some nice nurseries in Greenwich centre, including a Steiner, and also lots of Montessoris in Lewisham/Blackheath....

I think the 'rule' in most boroughs is that they get the 5 sessions a week paid for (well, an amount that goes towards it! - normally around £400 a term) in the term after they turn 3, so you should get that from January.

here you are - you will get it in Southwark (feel very strongly about this because they tried to not give it to younger 3 yr olds in our borough till we got our MP on to it and he shamed them into sorting it out!!)

southwark nursery funding

Thanks fox, I'll look into that. It's not an enormous help though because most of the private nurseries don't do morning only sessions and the nurseries round here are really really bad in general.

Message withdrawn

Hello Orinoco!

My gut instinct is that the new place is good, not as good as the one she's in now but that's not going to be there after Christmas anyway!

How old's your dd2 by the way? Is she like my dd and your dd1?

Hi mll!

Would try the phased approach too. I don't think your dd would be confused, children just accept things like going to different places and she'll soon get the hang of it. As for whether the current place would say yes I don't know. I would go for consecutive days if at all possible.

Hello mgr! Sorry for not mailing you, as I explained my monitor at home is playing up bigtime so today I'm taking advantage of work computer at lunchbreak to say a quick hello and check up on MN.

I think I'll sound out the current playgroup to see what they think of the idea of dd spending 2 mornings elsewhere. I'm hoping they'll be generous as they're closing down and know the mums in my situation are going to have to find an alternative?

Yes, that's a point, the playgroup will surely do all it can to help parents in this situation. Also at work, sneaking a quick fix of MN.