Nurseries in Surbiton

[Petal18]

We're thinking of moving to Surbiton from Wimbledon - could anyone tell me if nurseries in Surbiton have long waiting lists generally?

I'm putting our unborn DD on a waiting list for nurseries in Wimbledon at the minute with more than a year to go as the waiting lists for the few available spaces are loooong...

Hi we moved from Wimbledon to Kingston when DD was a couple of months old. I have heard similar stories about Wimbledon waiting lists from friends still in Wimbledon - they all ended up getting childminders instead! I have met plenty of parents in Surbiton that don't seem to have had problems - I know of people with babies at Dickiebirds and at the nursery attached to Nuffield Health and they seem pleased with them. I visited 7 nurseries in Kingston when DD was around a year old - I only encountered one which couldn't give me the days I wanted, and she started full days within a month of registration so I didn't plan very far in advance. I think the situation is very different than Wimbledon, although they are still very expensive here! Good luck for your new arrival, what I would say is wait to meet your DD and get to know their personality before making a decision - it will definitely influence what you consider as pros and cons with childcare.

I'm looking at this right now.
I think lists for babies are tougher as the staff ratios are higher, but having rung 3 nurseries on Monday, they all had FT availability for my 2.5 yr old DS

My 11 month old is at one of the Dicky Birds nurseries in Surbiton and we love it, they're great and after some truly awesome separation anxiety they've worked really hard to get him settled - we've had several consecutive drop offs with no tears at all now, and he's really bonded with his key person. I've got friends with their kids here and a friend at the other DB nursery, and so far all their experiences have been similarly positive.

We registered him when I was 5 months pregnant but my friends didn't see nurseries until their kids were a few months old, and we all got in more or less at the same time. The DB nurseries are popular so I'd err on the side of caution - my theory was that I would rather potentially waste £50 registration fee than find myself with no nursery!

The big intake/changeover time is in the summer - both nurseries have just had a bunch of new kids in as lots have gone off to school. Claremont Hall seems to have had a particularly big clearout as the first lot of kids in the nursery have all just finished up and gone to school, so there are lots of new babies/toddlers. Not sure what that will mean for future waiting lists / availability of places though.