What's the difference between DayCare and a Nursery?

[Katymac]

Well that's the question really....

TIA

Tradtionally - I would say Day Care was looking after children from around 3 months to school whereas a Nursery was from an older age (3) and had an educational slant. Also Day Care - all day for working parent, Nursery stupid 2.5 hour slots and no earthly good to anyone who actually needs childcare .

Just my opinion thou' and I think the boundaries and blurred now. HTH

I thought that Day Care was originally an American term for what we call nursery.

Not much -- I say "daycare" if I'm talking to Americans and "nursery" if I'm talking to British people. I don't think "daycare" is a term much used over here.

"Nursery" can be a bit confusing though as it can mean nursery school (for say 3+ with a more educational slant) or day nursery (for younger children) or one establishment that does both. It covers a multitude of situations.

No difference.

Nursery - provides full time daycare.

Pre-school - provides sessional care to pre-schoolers!

The difficulty is the terms get misused, and some pre-schools call themselves nurseries. Nursery's will provide pre-school sessions for age appropriate children in addition, but are also offering full daycare for working parents.

I think Ofsted use daycare to mean nurseries, sessional care to mean creche and pre-schools.

Gee that's nice and easy to differentiate then

I think the confision is that the word nursery covers both the place you go for full time childcare and the place you go for part time education before you start school. In practice I use nursery to cover both (we have used both types of nursery) but when I want to make the distinction I would say daycare and pre-school. If you are asking why choose one over the other, I think your choice depends on what suits you and your lifestyle (work, other childcare arrangements, other children etc) and what you think would suit your children - and of course what is available where you live! There is no obligation to take a pre-school place as education isn't statutory here till child is 5, I believe. HTH

Thanks Sinclair

I think I mean full daycare

Sorry KM - just twigged why the question.

In your circs I think I would use the 'catch all' of nursery rather than risk daycare and people not know what you mean. then explain what is on offer in the brochure/website etc.

HTH (good luck...)

Thanks

I think I'm with gomez on this one...
daycare is the same as an all day nursery suitable for working parents...
pre-school/nursery 2 1/2 hour slots....

I've only heard daycare used in America,

So if you selling all day for birth to three years which would you use?
Nursery?
Daycare?
Something else?

have you got a yellow pages you could look in to see how they word it....
you could always use daycare nursery or day nursery

I've just seen your other thread by the way... go for it...

hows your daughter by the way...

A bit better I explained that if she didn't stop wetting I would move her to a new school
Since then (4 days I think) she has wet her PJ's but not the bed...real progress

I would say Nursery definitely. Fulltime day nursery, or daycare nursery would explain in full.

Thanks Hattie

I always just associate 'home daycare' with being the US term for 'childminding'.

That could be a good thing

In my opinion, the main difference between DayCare and a Nursery will be the name of the service itself, and so I do not see much difference between the two services. In my opinion, both services are engaged in caring for and following people so that everything is fine with them. I don't know the difference in prices, but in my opinion the services are really the same. There may be a difference in the quality of the service, but I don't know exactly what the difference is. I know for sure that such nursing homes as senior living Minneapolis are very high quality and can provide really good living conditions. I can't give an example of DayCare services because I don't understand them. Perhaps you will have an example of such a service?

We call it daycare here in Australia. Nobody says nursery to mean a place that looks after your children. Maybe occasionally the word is used as an old sounding term to mean a baby's bedroom.

Daycare = a place to look after children for full days from young babies to preschool age (where it is a preschool program within a daycare)
Preschool = government funded place where children can get free education but it is only 9-3 or something 5 days a fortnight. Most people would continue using the daycare they've been using and only kids that have otherwise missed out on early years education go to the free preschool

I have not even heard about the nursery. When I was looking for a daycare in America when we moved here, I met only "kindergarten" and "daycare". Daycare is more spread. My kids are in one of the preschools Brooklyn littlescholarsnyc.com/ four days a week while my husband and I are working. Even if we work from home, we drive them there because they have classes they do not want to miss. So, this place is called a daycare but they prepare kids for school and, moreover, they improve their creative skills. Before they started to go there we had a babysitter, maybe that is called a nursery.