Nursery term time dates for EYEF don't match school term dates.

[Mycarsmellsoflavender]

DD(3.5) attends a private nursery for 15 hours per week using the government funded entitlement. Went to drop her off this morning and was told that the term time funded places were not available today ( also the Friday before half term) but it was fine for her to stay if I wanted to pay privately. The manager went on to say that instead the term time only funded children are being funded for an extra few days at the end of term (i.e. the start of the Christmas holidays for all the local schools).

I understand (from MN!) that nurseries are in a dire place financially because of the government's underfunding and am guessing this is a way of trying to claw some money back. I wonder how many preschoolers with school age siblings attended today anyway even though they weren't funded and payed the extra. And realistically, how many parents with school age children are going to drop their preschooler off at nursery in the first week of the Christmas holidays? Meals and snacks are paid for in advance so will still have to paid for during those days even if you know in advance that they're not going to be there. So almost certainly the nursery will benefit financially from this arrangement. Does anyone know of any other reasons besides the reason I have suggested why the nursery term dates would differ from every other school in the area?

A private nursery can set its own term dates for the funding
They don't have to follow any guidelines

Matter resolved! They are going to tie in with the local school dates as a result of feedback from parents after yesterday.

yes you’re definitely one of those parents.

Feedback ffs get organised next time.

And you're one of those people who always has to have the last word. My DH would tell you I am probably the most organised person he has ever met. It was an easy mistake / oversight to make, so much that several other parents overlooked it too, hence the feedback. Or are we all lacking in self-organisation?

Well yes! But whatever.

The nursery has no obligation whatsoever to match their dates to the local school. They have been generous to change under parent pressure. Sadly it will just set a precedent that parents think they can give ‘feedback’ and the nursery will have to jump.

I offer funding, I give my term dates out at the beginning of the year and no way would I change one term in just because I had a bunch of disorganised parents. I would just reissue my calendar to you since you binned the first.

But the nursery dates weren't given out at the beginning of the year - that is my point! There was no calendar in the newsletter or I would have kept it. I did retrieve it from the recycling bin which is proof that it was given out less than 2 weeks ago and only the dates were half term were mentioned, no other dates. So I contacted them this morning asking for term dates for future reference. And was told that I was the second person to have asked them that since yesterday ( don't know who the other person was but it wasn't the lady I mentioned earlier in the post as she hadn't contacted them). So they were going to stick to the school dates in future to avoid confusion.