Nursery/Preschool selection in Wimbledon

[Sharon001]

Dear parents,
I'm currently pregnant and due date will be May next year. I'm thinking to send my 1st baby boy to nursery/preschool between age 1 to 2 yrs old, do you have any nursery/preschool recommended in Wimbledon(near High street or Dundonald park area)? Do I need to register the nursery as soon as possible or in advance before my labour as I heard that some are popular?
Many thanks xx

We sent our first one to Dicky Birds about 4 years ago when it was ranked pretty highly in the area. The reputation since then has gone down a little and tbh - we weren't overly impressed with what they taught. It was great to keep him occupied between the hours of 8am and 6pm and allowed me to go back to work when he turned 1, but there wasn't much structured learning as such.

We switched to a Montessori when he turned 2 and it made a world of difference. We used Wimbledon Village Montessori School who don't really have a very good online presence but came highly recommended by word of mouth reviews from local parents. And then decided to wait for our 2nd son till he was 2 years old, to send him directly.

The other one in the area I've heard good reviews about and is fairly local to you is the Castle Kindergarten. Consistently gets ranked outstanding.

@SWLondonMum00 Thanks a lot for your advice, that’s helpful. BTW, would you mind sharing why you think it’s better to send your 2nd son to nursery at 2? I’m also hesitating about the age into nursery as well. Isn’t it the earlier the better? Many thanks.

@Sharon001 No real reason apart from the fact that the Montessori we chose (WVMS) didn't accept kids younger than 2 year old. He turned 2 in Nov and started in Jan at the start of next term.

My experience was that our elder one didn't really 'learn' all that much. You don't notice when he's going to a nursery to be fair as they do a lot of activities to keep you occupied like painting, blocks, garden walks etc. But, he did pick up a lot of infections and I think at that age - the immune system is still developing.

We noticed a marked difference a term after he had moved to Montessori. The level of speech development, fine motor skills, playing with other kids nicely all showed a huge jump and that's what sealed the deal for us when it came to the younger one.

@SWLondonMum00 Thanks a lot for your valuable information, especially the infections which I didn’t think about at all before. Much appreciated for your help.