Small nursery or big nursery?

[breatheslowly]

I'm in a bit of a quandary about DD's nursery. Is a nursery being small (in terms of children numbers) a positive or negative? I can see advantages in the small one (about 25 children) in terms of personalisation, but feel a little concerned about DD having a small cohort of other children to play with. The big one is about 80 children and feels a bit conveyor belt.

I've worked in many nurseries and most had small groups, even if they had lots of children in.
The biggest group was 24 children (pre-school)
Even if you send them to a big nursery they will still have a small cohort of children of each age group.

I'm looking at the difference between a room of max 24 or a room of max 12. I am not sure if 12 is enough.

Small is better, I don't see any advantage in a small child being in a big group. I deliberately chose a baby room of 6 under 2s and a 2-3 room of 12 for DS.

24 is probably alright for 3-4 year olds, but I would steer clear of anything over 16 for little ones.

Go for the one with the nicest, kindest, most involved-with-the-children-looking staff.