Nursery attached to private prep school - better than chain day nursery?

[Sugarcoatedalmond]

Have the option to move DC (aged 3) into the day nursery attached to the private prep school DC will hopefully be attending from Sept 2022.

DC is currently in a day nursery (part of a large chain) for 2/3 days per week.

DC seems happy at current nursery. I feel neutral about it - some of the staff are lovely but they have a high staff turnover which concerns me (although other lovely staff have been there years) and communication from the nursery is a bit hit and miss. So no deal-breaking issues & DC seems happy enough there but I’d rate it 6/10 or 7/10 rather than a 9 or 10 if that makes sense?

Should I move DC? Would you expect a nursery attached to a private prep to be better?

What are the motivations of private prep schools? I’m aware her current nursery is part of a large business and the ultimate aim is to make money for the shareholders. What’s the deal with private schools? I’m assuming the key aim is to provide high standard education but am I being naive and missing something?

Reason why not to move DC is that current nursery is all year round whereas at the nursery attached to the school it’s term time, it would be do-able but require juggling as I work.

Thanks

Have you visited the other nursery or got any feedback from parents who have used it? You really need to go and get a feel for the atmosphere and meet the staff, see if children are happy and engaged. Nurseries tend to be as good as the staff working in them and they are the key resource for how well children learn. Also see if they have staff than they need for ratio.

My DD is at the nursery attached to a private school. She’ll be moving up to reception in September. I imagine the attraction for the school is to get kids through the door with their 15 free hours and then hope they love it and stay there ensuring a full reception intake. We love it, great prep for school, no concern about school readiness despite being a summer baby. Downside is the follow the private school term so a month off for Easter and Christmas, 9 weeks over the summer! Most of the families either have one staying at home, or a nanny to make it work.

Most prep school nurseries are designed to feed into the school so be aware of that. My kids went to one. It was excellent and was staffed with a mixture of teachers and nursery assistants and mirrored a school day but with extra wrap around care . Staff turnover was much lower, probably because they were paid more and had to give at least half a term notice.

Yes I’ve visited it and met the nursery head out of hours and am planning another visit during nursery hours. Obviously it’s been tricky due to Covid.

I’m aware that the purpose is to feed into the school & we are planning on DC going to that school so no issue there

I would expect a small setting with more personalised care and less turnover to be better. That might me the nursery attached to the school (or it might not be). Personally, we steered clear of the big chain nurseries as the one we looked at was awful - very institutional, 20 minutes of the 45 minutes we were there was focussed on the penalties for late or non-payment of fees, one of the baby room staff told us we had to 'work to breaking our bond' before dd started so it would be easier for them. We used a small family run private nursery (not attached to a school) and they are wonderful. We've had 2 dc go through there now and I couldn't fault them. I'd personally go with whichever provides more personal care and better facilities and experience. It wouldn't matter if it was attached to a prep for me or not.

If DC will definitely be going to that school and you can cover the holidays then I’d strongly consider it. My DD will know most of her reception class and is already familiar with the school building, the playground, etc. The specialist teachers will also remain since they’re already having lessons with them for sports, French, music and ballet. So continuity wise it’s great. And we’ve been really happy with the care there versus where she was before. And as a PP say the staff have all worked there for years and we haven’t had any changes except one teaching assistant that went on maternity leave.

Staff tend to be more permanent, however they dont necessarily get paid more. The attraction for the staff are long holidays (although their pay is averaged out over 12 months same as the teachers). Facilities will be good and that makes for a wider variety of activities. However do check what facilities the nursery class can access, and don't necessarily believe the hype without checking the details.

The other advantage is the children get used to a school environment and school routines.
The disadvantage is parents can struggle with the holidays. And the nursery might not be open as late (or as early) as chain nurseries. If you need wrap around care check what provision there is for that.

I didn't do this and my DS was the only new kid in reception. He was fine with this but it meant I was very lucky to have got him in - everyone in pre-school got the option of just going straight up (not in the slightest selective at that point) so it depends if you're confident that your child will definitely be accepted into reception (I signed mine up when he was 2 and was the first on the list). For me, the pay off for the longer days and pretty much permanently open was enough to make me want to keep him in his private nursery but I was definitely fortunate.

Thank you everyone

Which chain?

I work in a nursery attached to a private school. It was set up to provide a service wanted by parents and to get more children in for reception. It worked at first, but now fewer than a quarter of the children stay on. Still makes money. I have been told the nursery is the most profitable part of the whole school.

Quality wise it's a bit above average, no more. Unfortunately the bosses think it's perfect so there's no need to reinvest in it. It needs a lot of stuff. Pay is average. Management is average. Staff are average. There are better private small nurseries and even chain nurseries about.

Prep school nurseries work for profit too. I used to work in a prep school that had a nursery too and would not recommend it at all.