Can’t start nursery at Easter?

[CosmicComet]

Started looking at nurseries for my DS because I want to put him on the waiting list for when he turns 3 and gets free hours. But I’ve been told I can’t, because he was born in January.

The kids who turned 3 over the summer are eligible to start nursery in September. Then the kids who turn 3 before Xmas are eligible to start in January. And finally those who turn 3 in the Spring are eligible to start after Easter.

Basically the local nursery has spaces in September because that’s when kids leave to go to school. So the September starters take some places, and if there are places left the January starters take them. And there are no places left for Easter starters. So the nursery said there’s no point putting my DS on the waiting list because there’ll be no places left by the time he’s eligible to start.

AIBU to think this is unreasonable? Their only advice was to “choose a crapper nursery because they’re more likely to still have places left at Easter. Try X nursery in the next town because Ofsted has rated it as Poor”. Why should my DS have to go to a nursery rated Poor just because of when his birthday falls?!

Some places will let you have it completely free, but nurseries can choose to offer the hours however they like.
One nursery might let you have 8-6 three days free, another might say free hours are 8-11 and 1-4, so to get three full days you will get 18 free hours and pay for the other 12.

This is normal and has been for years. My 5 year old was entitled to 15 hours funding for 6 terms but there wasn't the space at the preschool for everyone who wanted it so he did 3 hours for the first 3 terms and 6 hours for the 2nd 3 terms. My 8 year old didn't go to preschool or nursery because there wasn't one close enough to my other dc's school.

You have had so much advice and so many suggestions on here, but it seems you are just on here to demonstrate how angry and how entitled you are.

But I shouldn’t be told I’ll have to wait till September if I’m entitled to it in April. Like school, if my child is entitled to a space they should have to find him one. Yes, the LA would have to find him a space once he is school age but it doesn't have to be in the one particular school you fancy. It can be anywhere in the LA, which, in some cases could be hours / miles away.
You want to work 'part time' and 'term time only - good luck with that
You are refusing to consider other options for your ds to go to Nursery - so it is you that is depriving him of a place (if you see it as a deprivation), not anyone else.
There are other options people have suggested, but - despite asking here and getting the bet part of 200 replies to help you think about other options - you are just being angry and not willing to consider anything. You come across as very entitled.
I can't believe you can't understand that a business isn't going to keep a place empty in case a person wants to use that place 8 months later, when they could be getting income from that place all year

@NoNameIdeas

Her kid was born in January, so missed the January term. But would be eligible to start in the April (or whenever the term starts).
But the nursery she wants won't have a space and she doesn't want to look for one somewhere else.

Ah ok, an earlier post said about April birthday...

@CosmicComet the nurseries can decude how they provide the funding.

Some limit it do set times on set days, such as 8-12 and 1-5 but if you want them there all day you have to pay for lunch and hour between 12-1 for example.

Some say you can only take them in 6hour days across all 5 days if the week.

Chances are you may get the 30hrs for free, but you'll have to pay for meals or snacks as extra.

You should visit all the nurseries local to you. Sometimes you get a feel for them just by walking in. Just because that nursery is looking down on others it doesn’t mean the others are bad! Check how long ago the Ofsteds were given too, lots can change in staffing etc in a few years. Also Ofsted is a snap shot on one particular day on one strangers opinion, look for parent reviews on a nursery and word of mouth.

As for the 30 hours. They are funded hours not free no matter what the government says. They won’t be free until the government pays the full cost of a space. Nurseries want to be make things easy for their parents but still have staffing costs, pensions, resources, food, bills etc to pay so if the spaces aren’t fully paid for by the government then parents will be asked to make up the difference - usually by charging for resources and meals or having an expensive lunch hour etc.

Ours you have to pay £1 per session towards resources and all the meals so costs around £3/4 per day which is still good value when you think of all the activities they get to do. The funded hours have to be used between 9am - 3pm and extra hours paid at the usual rate.

And childminders have to pay tax and NI on their government funding so even less of it goes towards the provision.

My DDs Nursery (Private) only offer the 30 hours to anyone who was already at the Nursery before the turned 3, then they offer any remaining spaces to those claiming 15 hours. If there's any space left after that then they're offered to those on the waiting list otherwise you have to find another Nursery. It's just the way it goes.

You could look at using a childminder for now until September when he would start school nursery for a school year and in the mean time use the funding with a childminder who would do all the same things anyway.

"CosmicComet Mon 14-Jan-19 13:49:11

Surely that’s between the government and the nursery. Nothing to do Did you think that for all those funded hours, the nursery would not have to pay any bills?
with me. Same as school - free to me and how it’s funded is between the government and the school."

Schools are effectively owned by Government (unless you pay to go to a public school) nurseries and childmidners were existing businesses that the government have tried to dictate too you are a voter who brought the lie why on earth did you not think about how the government with little budget was going to force private business to take children at a loss.

If the government said everyone could have a free tank of petrol once a month, would you expect the petrol companies to suck up the loss, or try and reclaim the money some other way?

The government has offered this scheme to parents, via private companies and then not paid for it. Shocking practice.