Help for new mum - how to make the best decision?

[Mu42]

Dear all

As a new mum (and not from Great Britain originally), I would like to make the best choices for my newborn daughter and wonder if you could help.

I realise that some of the choices in terms of education will vary from one person to another but would be grateful for any advice as to how to negotiate this whole approach - i.e. what to look for? Nursery, reception class? Good school - church, state-run - how to find information to allow for a more informed choice? Any websites or documents I could request at all. Are there any organisations I could contact?

As I was not educated here, I need to find as many details as possible to at least understand how it all works.

Thank you for your help and sharing of your experience.

If you're talking about primary school and your daughter's newborn my advice would be not to worry about it for a few years! Do you mean childcare though? Are you going back to work?

Plenty of time to learn and worry about formal education, Mu42. Children generally start school the term they turn 5. There's also the option of home education, if nothing suits (or if you choose to).

If you intend to go back to work and have your daughter in a nursery, then register her with a few nurseries around as there can be long waiting lists, some up to 1 year long. You could also look into employing a nanny or having your daughter go to a childminder. If you don't intend to go to work for the time being, then you can attend together various music and toddler groups or she can go for some short sessions (2.5 hours) when she's 2.5 years old (these are called playgroups, I think).

I'm not from the UK originally either and although I had my son 5 years after I'd settled here I still found the whole system a bit bewildering as I didn't have any friends with young children and just hadn't paid any attention when others talked about such matters (remember how boring these discussions used to be?).

Thank you for your replies - it is encouraging to see that others are/have been facing similar experiences.

I will indeed be going back to work so am looking into chilcare around my work area for proximity's sake.

Great advice anyhow re playgroups too and as far as discussions are concerned, guess I should have paid more attention. But we live and learn, don't we? Thanks again for your replies. I shall keep looking to see what is going on as time always seem to fly quickly although I do want to enjoy as much as possible too.