Sydney preschool costs

[sunnydelight]

Hi. Just a quick question for any Sydneysiders. How much does preschool usually cost here? I don't want to send DD to school until January 2009 although she could start next Jan, but she is used to some kind of nursery/preschool and I think she's missing it. I'm trying to work out if I'd be better off putting her into the preschool attached to the school where she will go in 2009 (which seems expensive to me, but has the obvious advantage of her getting used to the place etc.), or to find somewhere cheaper and closer to home. I asked a couple of people who said $40-50 a day - is that about average?

Hi SunnyD,

I think it depends where you are. I'm in the East and when I arrived there were no places at all (DD was 2.6 then) - huge waiting lists for up to 2 years. I had to snatch a place from a newly opened centre which charged (wait for it) $110 PER DAY.

I think if you're outside the East then I've heard of people paying $35-$50 per day. It also depends on age - under 3 is more expensive .

If I'd been able to I would have put DD into the kindergarden attached to her school, to make the transition up to her first year easier. It was fully booked though so I couldn't move her there. I think the pre-school attached to DD's school is around $60 per day.

hi there. my daughter (3.6 yrs) starts kindy in January and it will cost me $35/day. she's only going 2 days a week, and the hours are 9am to 3.10pm (or thereabouts - haven't been to the orientation day yet!). it is a community based one, so is subsidised i think. long day care (8am-ish to 6pm-ish) options near us range from $60 to $92 (the latter is a brand new facility that opened not so long ago).

the waiting lists for some places are long, and places for under 2's seem to be very limited (i've got a 4 month old, and was told by my Early Childhood Centre to get her name on a list now if i'm thinking of starting work in a year's time).

we live on the Northern beaches...

sunnyd, I can be of no help as my child is a mere bump at the moment, but after reading the replies to you I just wanted to ask you and arfishy if you could pass the smelling salts on to me, next, please. I've just been advised by a friend to get my name down now for a nursery place - even though I don't even have a baby yet...

I thought it was bad enough that you had to book your obstetrician practically while you were still having sex (we didn't - left it until seven whole weeks pregnant and they were all booked)...

OK, so I guess I'd better get into the school pronto and see if they fall around laughing at the idea of a pre-school place for January (I do know that I will have sibling preference for DS2 at the school now DS1 is enrolled, but I'm not sure if that extends to DD and the pre-school).

Your line about booking the Ob while you were having sex did make me laugh neuroticlady

I'm at the obstetrician! It's insane here isn't it? When I went to see DD's school there were loads of pg women there - for a place 4 or 5 years later.

Oh dear SunnyD. January? Good Luck. Maybe it's so late you'll get a last minute drop out and get yourself in with your sibling card.

originally the kindy dd1 attends would take children's names for the waiting list the year they turned two. Then more and more people were phoning up cause the Creche and Kindergarten ( C and K) people were advertising about getting your child in early etc.

So for dd2 I put her name down the year she turned two - she has missed out on a kindy place at this stage BUT will definitely get into kindy in her pre prep year.

Dd3 - her name was down a couple of months ago at a few months old - figured if more and more people are going to get their names down early - I may as well do the same.

We were lucky with dd1 - I put her name down around the sept the year before she attended - and she got both a kindy and a pre prep place.

Success! I've managed to get her into the school where I want her to go next year for their 2 day a week pre-school class and the bonus is she then automatically goes straight into a kindy class. I was slightly freaked by the "bring her in for interview" approach, but as it consisted of her sitting on the floor doing a puzzle while I chatted to the head of pre-school and her telling the woman what she liked to play with I guess it was ok. All I need now is a space in year 3 for DS2 in January ...

hey sunny, long time! hows it all going?

Hi Astrophe - things are going well thanks. It's been a bit crazy but we're living in St. Ives (renting at the moment), DH finally has a job he likes (he quit the one he started with after a month as they put him on crap projects), DS1 is settling in a new school (second time lucky I hope!!), DD will start pre-school in January and hopefully they'll have a place for DS2 as well. That's all the big stuff done so all we have to do now is find a house where we want to live at a price we can afford (easier said than done in Sydney at the moment!!!!). I still get ridiculously excited at living in a house with a swimming pool and every time I go for a walk in the bush (just across the road) I am blown away by the fact that you can be walking through something that looks like part of the Crocodile Dundee set, then come to a lookout where you can see over miles and miles of trees to the city beyond. It's nothing if not picturesque! Bloss and her family are coming for lunch on Sunday and I'm slowly making some new girlfriends. How about you? Are you heading back to this part of the world any time soon?