Which nursery?

[GothAnneGeddes]

Nursery 1 has nice staff, is quite small, but a friend sends her child there and praises it very highly.

Nursery 2 has nice staff, much nicer premises, but I don't know anyone who goes there.

Which would you choose? All advice gratefully received

My gut instinct would be nursery 1 just because of the recommendation from someone you trust. Children, from my experience, aren't fussed about how beautiful the nursery looks, but whether the staff care for them and they feel safe

i would visit them both, and get a gut feel myself, if you haven't already

without that, then number 1, simply due to personal recommendation

I have visited them both. Both sets of staff seemed equally nice, nursery 2 much nicer building.

Gut feeling is that nursery 2 is nicer, but friend speaks so highly of nursery 1 that I feel a bit confused.

well, there is no reason why nursery 2 shouldn't be just as lovely as one I guess. It is nice to have a recommendation from someone who is happy there tho

I don't think children generally care much about equipment and premises tho, as long as the people looking after them are nice

are there any other factors? distance? cost etc? food?

They're both same distance, similar price, cook on site.

Thank you so much for your input so far btw.

Parents aren't always the best judges of whether a nursery is good or not though - the nursery wants them to see it's best side, and of course no one wants to believe they send their child to a rubbish nursery!

What's the turnover of staff like? If it's a good nursery staff should be there for years. Have you checked Ofsted too?

That's another point to nursery 2 as it got a 'good' Ofsted, the nursery 1 got a satisfactory.

I'd read both reports carefully and see why it got a satisfactory - but personally I wouldn't choose a satisfactory nursery over a good one.

I don't feel there is always a great deal of difference between "Good" and "Outstanding" nurseries, but I would avoid only "satisfactory" ones.

I think you should pick nursery 2 as that is what your gut instinct tells you.

Thank you so much for all your feedback. I'll be booking her a place at nursery 2. [Smile]