Private vs school nursery in light of cost of living

[Thegirlhasnamechanged]

Boring background

after having DD in 2018 I went PT and she went to private nursery 3x a week. DS came along in 2021, still PT (now band 6 NHS as opposed to band 4 in 2018). We do have a family pot but the equivalent of my monthly wage goes straight on nursery fees but we saw it as a good thing to do so my skill set and pension contributions are up to date. In theory will be able to go FT when both are in primary school.

our nursery always increases their daily rates in January and I’m just a tad concerned that with the cost of living/inflation/every other bloomin’ thing they will raise to such a degree that it is no longer cost effective to carry on working, despite the enjoyment I get from working. DH works FT and the equivalent of his salary in the family pot pays for everything else. We don’t drink/smoke/have sky/foreign holidays etc. to cut back on

i have been considering pulling DD from private nursery and instead having her go to the local primary school nursery instead. I would hate to do it as she has friends and loves her current nursery. But even with her funded hours we pay £450ish a month for her to go there (and DS would still need to go there due to his age which would probably upset DD)

ive had a look at the t&c’s for school nursery and it doesn’t say anything about if you need to pay anything above and beyond the funded hours. I have emailed to enquire but wondered if anybody could shed any light?

TLDR; freaking out about cost of living and imminent nursery fees increase. Do you have to pay anything at all for school nursery places (aside from uniform and pack lunches)?

If she goes to a state school nursery, what will you do for childcare during the holidays?

Before you go too much further, do you know if there are places? Ours is very much waiting list.

School nurseries are often 9-3 and term time only, which depending on your work arrangements could cause more issues than leaving her where she is?
Some of our local ones only do morning or afternoon sessions, so it’s 15 hours a week across 5 days, which would be difficult to work around.

School nursery is 9-3 term time only.Wrap around care is quite expensive. But other than that I don't see any harm in moving her to school nursery.

Contact local schools/nurseries and see what they are offering. They may offer certain days or only mornings or afternoons.
It would be cheaper, but it may not be flexible or fit in with your hours. Plus unless there's breakfast/after school provision (which you do usually pay for) the start and finish times are fixed and you'll have to cover school holidays another way.
Saying all that, my DD much preferred school nursery.

Our school nursery is free but wraparound is £20 a day for breakfast and after-school club so I don't think it makes much difference in the end

You won't have to pay extra BUT you will need childcare for after school and the holidays. It might not work out any cheaper for you at this point.

I wfh 9-3 on my working days which is good for not needing wraparound care and the village primary/nursery has a massive banner on the fence advertising full and part time places available for a September start (which I’m aware we would have missed if we go down that route). They only do the first 2.5 days at the beginning or end of the week and full time places which is making me not want to go ahead with it really as 5 full (ish, shorter hours than private nursery) just seems like a lot compared to her 3 days right now.

as for school holidays (which we were hoping to avoid as long as possible) we would just have to bring forward the plan to use annual leave to cover them by a year.

she is 4 in October so it would’ve been much better if schools did multiple intakes like they used to do and she could start after Christmas as she has seen all the big kids at her preschool leave for primary this month and keeps asking to go too 😩 I reckon she’ll be chomping at the bit come next September and be bored of it all!

thanks for the info everybody 🙂

(I’m not sure why my browser has stopped auto-capitalising after full stops - sorry!)

Have a look at the webpages for the Local Authority too. See what the rules are.
If they have spaces at the school still free they might accept a late entrance. You might be able to negotiate fewer days or, just not attend every say in a given week if she's getting tired. I think I am right in thinking you don't get fined for absences until Reception anyway.

At the school.nursery you will have to pay for school lunches and possibly supervision at lunch time if it takes her hours over the funded 30. Also of course it won't be open in the school holidays or outside school times. So you may still need additional childcare