Day/time arrangements of the free 15 hours?

[freelancegirl]

Hi there, just wondering what day/time arrangements of other people's free 15 hours (if you are using them) are like? DS will be starting when he is three in september and at this particular preschool it has to be taken five days a week either morning or afternoon. We have chosen mornings so it will be 9am-12 every weekday, term time only. He's only used to doing two mornings a week at private nursery (I work flexibly from home) so it will be a bigger step to attend five mornings, but hopefully it will work out. The only other option is afternoons x5 a week and I thought mornings would be preferable in terms of getting it out the way so we can go out for the rest of the day if we wanted to. Ideally I would have liked to have had one day 'off' a week so we didnt have to go out every morning if we didn't want to but that's not possible. How are your hours arranged and are you going to take them?

We can only use the 15 hours over 2 days. I think full days would be a bit much for DS certainly at 3 so will be sticking to the two mornings a week he does now.

5 mornings or 5 afternoons seem to be the standard arrangment.
Some schools round here will also offer all day Mon / Tues and a wednesday morning, or wed afternoon and all day thurs and fri. These are the only ones I stand a chance of my child attending, as I work FT, so lunchtime transfers are difficult (childminders and nursery don't do lunch time runs that I've found).

DS1 did the first half of the week.
DS2 is coming to the end of his year of second half of the week. For us, this has worked better.

My DD goes 3 days per week for 5 hours each time, lunch is included.

My dd's pre school does 5 afternoons only for the youngest children (those not starting school the following September) and a choice of 5 morning or afternoon sessions (can mix and match) for those starting school the following September. No full days as they have no lunch provision.

Both mine did 5 x mornings from age 3 until they started school

Did five mornings work well? I have to say I much prefer the option of 3 x 5 hours including lunch. Lunch not included in my 3 hours and at the moment I find it really handy to have two lunches a week I don't have to think about!

Mornings worked well as it meant you had the rest of the day free. I used to drop off and then do an exercise class or shop in peace. It is amazing how quickly the time passes

ds does 5 mornings a week, they have a second class in the afternoon. There is no option for doing a mix of sessions as it's set up like a school class. I found this works really well, as we are up and out and then can do something or not in the afternoon depending if he is tired.

Yes that sounds good. And I guess it also gets them used to the school format too. DS is a summer baby so will be young in the year anyway. I won't exactly be chilling out as I have his younger brother to contend with...

In the school nursery where I work, we offer parents mornings, afternoons, a mix of the two, or the option to do whole days, or a mix of whole days and half days. We also offer before and after school care between 7.30am and 6pm.

It takes a bit of juggling at times, but we are usually over subscribed by the summer term and we know it makes a huge difference to parents who are often trying to juggle work patterns.

I manage a nursery and we offer the 15 hours in a variety of ways
We are open all year round so one option is 1 long day all year round
We also offer 2 short days term time only
Or 2 even shorter days and 1/2 day
Or 5 mornings 5 afternoons or a mix of the 2
We are very flexible and will always they to fit in with parents need

Yes I was hoping for more flexibility too but I know it's a great nurser, its attached to the private one he's been attending for a couple of mornings a week and also attached to the primary school he's likely to attend. Shame there is no flexibility with the five mornings (although I feel lucky to have got in for mornings as otherwise it would have been five afternoons). But some of you have put me at ease that five mornings should be fine. I think they also stagger the settling in which might help.

I did 2 mornings a week at pre-school and used the remaining hours with dd's cm to save on the childcare costs. I think mornings better than afternoons because dc are less tired and fractious then.

We get two days 8.30-4 but you could have any combo of sessions term time

DS1 did 2.5 days 8.45-3.30 and 8.45-11.45. On the 3rd day we paid for the afternoon so he did 3 full school days.

My DD uses her free hours at a private nursery who are quite flexible. She currently does 8-1 3 days a week. She has breakfast and a hot lunch at nursery (I pay extra for this).