Nursery dilemma

[ASwimInAPondInTheRain]

Hi! Looking for some help in making a decision re people's thoughts on the nursery options I have...

We have been offered a place for my son at the nursery at the top of the road. It's open 8-6 and the facilities are great. I know from mum friends who attend that the feedback from staff to parents is non existent (one of my mum friends said 'it's a battle for me to find out from them if he's napped') which I know is acceptable, but I think it's pretty poor, especially for the fees they charge. He'd be in a group of 20 children around his age, and move onto preschool in September.

There's a very new nursery that's slightly further away that seems nice. It's open 8-4.30 which is tricky for me in terms of work but I can make it work. Friends whose children attend there only say good things about it (including getting good feedback about the children). However as it's new and quite small, there are approx 12 kids a day and my son will be one of only 3 children who are older than 2.

They're closed for the whole of August too and we wouldn't be able to get any additional childcare for that time from family as our family have never supported us with childcare.

I don't know which to choose. My heart says the new nursery but my head says the one at the top of the road.

If its only til September, go for the closer one. If he is over two he wont be napping for much longer anyway.

What's your plans for wrap around care/holiday childcare once he goes into Pre School?

Go to the one that works for work. Talk to the teachers every day at pick up to find out what happened that day. Once they know you are going to ask, they will just tell you automatically.

When my 1 year old when to nursery I got a diary saying wet/dirty nappies, what he ate and drank and when he napped and any other info.

At preschool nursery age 3 I got a couple of parents nights and realised they would be in touch with any concerns. Napping would be unusual at preschool and my child could tell me if he didn't eat lunch, was unhappy about something so I wouldn't need as much feedback. I would have liked a bit of chat about his day, who his friends are but appreciate it isn't necessary and staff are busy.

Ask the mums at the 8-6 nursery if they think their children are happy there if so go for that one.

My eldests nursery is terrible for feedback, it drives me insane. We moved her from one where we got daily updates on an app to a 3 minute handover at the door where I’m told she’s had a good day & played with her friends 😫 we do have an app but we are only supposed to get updates once a month on it. The last one I got was 15th Jan 🙄

However, my DD is very happy there. She’s in the pre-school. It’s a large nursery & busy & very outdoorsy. They’ve got fabulous grounds. It suits my DD to the ground as she is sociable & loves the outdoors! They also do things such as provide thick regatta raincoats, waterproof bottoms, suncream, hats, gloves etc which is really handy as I’m very forgetful 🙈 and it’s meant my daughters nice winter coat doesn’t need to get dirty at nursery 😂

To be honest, I wouldn’t choose a nursery that doesn’t work for your work. Nursery is blooming expensive, you need it to work for you. I sometimes get stuck in meetings & have to work over my hours at work but it doesn’t matter as nursery is open until 6pm & I can pick up anytime. And I’m terms of being closed all August, that’s a no from me. I don’t want to deal with juggling school holidays until I absolutely have too 🙈 bit of a strange decision from a private nursery.. it’ll put a lot of parents off!