Do you think starring nursery early has a big impact

[Sunshinepimms]

Do you think children that start a private nursery from a young age have a stronger start in school. Compared to children who start at pre school age and only do the funded hours? Just curious to know what people's thoughts are?

I think for seriously disadvantaged children from chaotic, neglectful homes do better with early nursery intervention.
I cannot see how placing most children from 8am - 6pm in institutional care provided by strangers with low educational attainment can possibly be better than one to one care by a loving, motivated parent who provides a language rich, varied and secure environment. Nurseries from 3 years are good for socialisation and preparation for school but not full time at such a young age.
Does the type of nursery make a difference? Yes of course. Private nursery schools (often attached to preps) with a qualified teacher, low ratios, good resources and high parental expectations are going to offer a headstart to the already privileged. Ours started French at 3 years, learned ballet at nursery, had swimming lessons in the school pool and had lovely outings such as crabbing and catching the rowing boat ferry to the beach. It wasn’t even in London!
Many parents have no choice though.

They must have had an amazing pupil/tacher ratio for getting a boat and beach activities Pavlova! The Risk Assessment must have been a nightmare for such young children. However, what you describe is brilliant nursery education.

However, overall I tend to agree with you, Pavlova. We do need to be more proactive in getting disadvantaged children into nurseries much earlier. Social workers tend to know who the children are that need accelerated help but participation in nursery education is patchy for these children. The parents simply do not get the children to them. They certainly cannot pay so, the children start school way behind their peers. Many do not attend nursery and are not taught the basics such as number, sounds, dressing, playing, or much at all really.

DD went to a day nursery from 9 months as I returned to work. For me the biggest advantage were:

interaction with other children as she is an only child
interaction with other adults
having access to activities I do not like to do, all kind craft related, I shudder at the idea of it, toys I don't need to get, outside space, learning to be independent

We did and still do lots of other activities with her like going to places, being physical active, incorporating learning into daily life like reading signs when shopping, DD learned numbers by "reading" numberplates, playing board games, doing jigsaws and above all, reading and talking to her.

I personally don't like typical nursery schools. DD is a Summer born and went to school 6 weeks after her 4th birthday. I didn't like the idea of structured learning from 3 onwards, it may be different for an autumn born one who often is bored in a more play based environment, so it may depends a lot on the chidl.

Learning is for school in my opinion, day care is for playing. Knowledge is absorbed in any setting, a day care setting is doing it in a more play focused way.

I think there are nursery places and nursery places. Ds1 went to what was supposedly a great nursery, failed to settle and with hindsight he was a square peg in a round hole (other parents with children who didn't fit the mould have struggled too) he then went to a kind and caring nursery but with hindsight they were somewhat dictated to by the primary school most of the cohort went on to and didn't touch phonics/ writing etc unless children showed enthusiasm. I feel they should have been working to the 'letters and sounds' phase 1 objectives and unfortunately weren't. Ds2 went to same nursery when younger (2 1/2) and then moved to nursery attached to the school he goes to aged 3 1/2, where they did short circle times with a few phonemes, lots more focus on weaving numbers into a lot of activities, signing nursery rhymes/ learning songs etc and he was ooodles more confident starting school than ds1.