Nursery or pre-school?

[meganandlucymummy]

How do I decide which is best. DD2 curently goes to nursery 3 x week 8.30-3.30. They follow the birth - 3 matters curriculum. Does pre-school offer anything different? Grateful for all thoughts and experiences x

pre-school is normally 5 sessions of 2.5 hours a week either morning or afternoon

Curriculum wise there shouldn't be a lot of difference between them, they'll both be inspected by Ofsted and have to achieve the same basic learning goals.

I'd go for the one where you think your DD will be happiest, so probably where she already is.

I had this dilemma a year ago - whether to keep ds in the nursery he was in or move him to the local school pre-school...I visited the pre-school and was shocked by how 'wild' the children were, and chose to keep him in the nursery. Fast forward to the following year and ds did not get a place at that primary school (despite it being our catchment school) so I am so glad I didn't put him into the pre-school as it would have been much harder for him to 'change schools' at that age.
On the other hand, now I know that dd will go to ds's school I am adamant that she will attend that schools pre-school as ds has missed out a lot by entering reception without knowing anyone in his year...but then dd is of a different personality to ds and I think she will deal with the nursery - preschool transition better.
It's a tough decision - good luck deciding.

My main concern at this age would be that she is happy and settled wherever we send her. I know she is happy at nursey, but it's a really valid point that she might miss out in the social aspects of making new friends at school if we keep her in nursery rather than pre-school.

The other good point my mum made the other day was that DD1's nursery is about 10 miles away and children don't seem to mix after nursery etc (maybe they're too young yet?) - at least if she was settling into preschool with children who live in this area, hopefully that social aspect of having little friends come round to play and vice versa, might be a little easier?

I'm not a very confident mum - so tell me should I already be inviting little friends over to play - even though I haven't met any parents and DD1 is still too young to talk about specific friends?

Hi meganandlucymum, just answered on your other thread too! We're obviously into the same things at the moment!

Firstly wanted to say I wouldn't worry on the 'little friends' thing, at all. It will happen naturally as they get older anyway and she already gets plenty of social interaction at nursery so in no way is she missing out on anything! I've been to birthday parties for a one or two year old where the mum says it's with "20 of his little friends" but tbh this is just silly - they are not friends at this stage, and really its more about what the mum needs than the child!

I think with the possible change to preschool< maybe one good aspect would be as your mum has said a local preschool is more likely to end up in making friends when she is ready: also i have found that the pre_school my ds attends is very helpful with the transition to reception year not only because he meets the children who will go up with him but also because they follow the same register routine where the kids choose their drink then choose their activity by putting name tags against what they want: but you may still feel that she is better where she is settled?