PRE SCHOOL Question

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

Can anyone guide me on the system with Pre-school prevision the term after your little one is 3?

My 14 month old attends a large all singing all dancing so to speak nursery once a week and 2 days a week is with family so I can work 3 days. The nusery he attends once a week is close to my work but therefore about 20 minutes drive from our home town.

The nursery is VERY different from the local schools in terms of philosophy etc, very child centred and allow my DS lots of freedom, noticable the follow day at home (!!) whereas the local schools are a bit traditional and I worry he might appear a little over excited!

So my question is, at 3 would I be better off moving him to a local pre-school for 5 sessions? Can you decide how these sessions are made up - 2 on one day for example??

Or.....could I continue to use the very modern nursery one day and mix with the 'old school nursery' for other sessions?? Would this confuse him?

Or, should he stay at the slightly manic but OFSTED outstanding, the downside being not making friends with local children perhaps and finding traditional school a shock??

How do the pre-school free session vouchers work??

SORRY VERY CONFUSED!!!

Sorry such a long thread too!

I too have a 14 month old and 2 older dds and I reckon I have done every combination possible. With baby, I have already decided to keep her at Nursery until term after she is 5 if possible. I am never doing part-time school/nursery EVER again. The vouchers at 3 are bascially taken off your nursery fees or you can have 5 free sessions at a school or pre school session. You run a real risk of doing your head in if you contemplate part time school or pre-school. I killed myself with juggling part time school with childminders/nursery/playschemes. Your son's nursery sounds great. Put his name down for School when he is 3 and start him when they can offer a full time place. He will soon make friends. In the nicest possible way, little boys tend to be interested in the game that is being played ( ie we all played Batman today) as opposed to girls who are obsessed with who they played with!. He will probably be very confident from being in such a good setting and will take it in his stride.

Vouchers are fro 5x2.5 hours a week, going up to 15 hours soon.

You can split them between 2 providers.

You can use 2 in one day.

No advice re the actual places though

Thanks everyone. I was told my my nursery that you can't split them between 2 providers and it would be confusing for the child? I'm really worried about the difference between this great nursery and the traditonal schools in my town. Interestingly a nursery worker commented to me the other day that schools always recognise the x nursery children "they are a little too confident and into everything"

I was told by my nursery

tryingtobemarypoppins - you can split the funding as long as its between two non-maintained settings (ie, private nurseries, pre-schools, playgroups etc) but not between a non-maintained and a maintained (school nursery or pre-school attached to school and run by the LEA).

As for confusing him, well I would say you know your child much better than a nursery worker. If you think he will cope, then I'm pretty certain he will. One thing that will be hard though is the logistics of getting him from one place to another if you're at work.

If you are happy with his nursery and are still happy with it when he is rising 3, then I see no real reason to move him. They all follow the same curriculum, even though they may differ slightly in how they deliver it

FWIW I put my oldest dd in maintained nursery and wouldn't do it again. It was far too structured and 'school-like' for us.
My second dd attended a wonderful playgroup from being 2.5 yrs old - she stayed there for 2 years and just went straight into school. She made friends easily and didn't find traditional school a shock at all
My dd3 will be doing the same!

As for how the vouchers work. The nursery have a set price for what their 2.5 hour session is worth. The 5 x 2.5hr sessions are then knocked off the cost of your nursery fees

The sessions are going up to 5 x 3hrs in 2010 (this is already being piloted in some areas) and there will be more flexiblity in how it can be used.

You definitely can split the vouchers - I didn't do it but a lot of people I know did.

Would you have the childcare to cover the fact that a pre-school day is shorter than a nursery day? They tend to do slightly shorter than school hours. It could get complicated to have a nursery, pre-school and after pre-school care.

Thank-you Niecie and Plonker (fab name!). I have lots of family help so getting DS to nursery isn't really a problem. I guess its more the setting i'm concerned about. Do I go for the great nursery which won't perhaps prepare DS for the very traditional schools in our village or mix and match to give him a balance?? My DH thinks we should stay at the nursery and choose a more play based infant school when the time comes........I think he may be right........buts that's a whole new thread!