Private vs school nursery

[Bree82]

Hey everyone,
just wondering about private vs school nursery funded hours when LO turns 3. Which is not anytime soon but I always think ahead lol.
So for people who has their little ones already in a private nursery before 3, did you stay with the private nursery for the funded hours, or switch to school nursery, or not if both, and why?
curious to see benefits to all choices :)
thanks :)

Oh I see. My step children are at our zoned school and went to the school nursery.
but they will be gone by the time LO is ready to start. I guess it will depend on how many in catchment and who is closest?
so I take it you’re not garunteed a space?
How long before starting so they let you know?

All the nurseries ( well there’s only 3) in my town ( small market town in NW) are council…..2 are attached to a school ….one is stand alone…..we have no private nurseries

We r in private nursery as school one is term time only. I work 3 days so need her in until at least 5pm. In some ways it would have been nice for her to go there and meet some friends get used to the school.

However it looks so rubbish compared to the private one we use. The school one has small outdoor area and it looks very run down mainly just a few big tyres with plants and a few play things. The nursery we use has a massive lovely outdoor area with lots of climbing frames slides etc. They are always doing extra things with the kids. Bringing in bouncy castles in the summer, having water fights, cinema afternoon, visits to the woods for fun activities, dress up days etc. They built an outdoor building (snug as they call it) last year to use which the kids all love. Easter bunny comes in at Easter gives them all an egg, they do Santa with a gift at Christmas time. Also last few years they've arranged to have reindeers and we cld go feed them before going to see Santa. The staff are all lovely, it's such a gd nursery.

Aw that sounds lovely!
our nursery is also super lovey. It’s in a nice big house and has a lovely garden and an outdoor classroom too.
they have people come in specially to do baby yoga, music lessons & a teaching specialist.
they take them on trips too.
they have 2 sessions a day when they mix the different age groups which really appealed to us (I come from a big family & this nursery kind of felt like a home from home )
The owners are so good to their staff which we also likes because they all seemed so happy there and low staff turnover.
they told us the owners will frequently call on the way in and ask them who wants Starbucks and breakfast etc.
it just has such a lovely family homely feel. We told them this and they really appreciated the feedback.
i guess a part of me feels like I’d want LO to get used to the school nursery and know some other kids before stating school… buuuut we spend so much of our child hood in school school don’t we?!
I didn’t know any kids when I started school and on the first day I made my best friend (still to this day)

but then I was happy any where , my LO is a lot more cautious already and takes a while to settle anywhere new..

i think I’m probably overthink everything lol

Oh well I guess you don’t have so much choice then, but maybe that makes choosing easier?
do you just have to go with zoned areas then?

DS was with a childminder 3 days a week from 8 months old up until he started reception.

DD went to the childminder from a year old, but when she was 2 we changed to 2 days with the CM and 2 9am-3pm days at the school pre-nursery (and I changed my work pattern accordingly).

The school pre-nursery year (age 2-3) is only 8 children; nursery year is 30. They benefit from the facilities and speciaist teachers (e.g. French and music) at the school. I think it did give my DD an advantage when moving up through the school as she was familiar with it from an early age, and she is still close friends with some of her buddies she made way back in pre-nursery.

The childminder was lovely and both children were very well cared for and had a lot of fun, but if I was doing it again and the logistics worked, in terms of the short hours/long holidays, I'd go for the school nursery.

Re knowing people when they start school...
We moved just before each DD started Reception due to DHs job. Hundreds of miles both times. The vast majority of the Reception class had been in the Nursery class each time... in DD2s school this meant knowing the classroom as well as they shared a garden.

By half term none of the kids could really remember who the couple of new kids were!

@OverHereTryingToFigureItOut re facilities, I did just remember one of my step children being at the school nursery and for example they used the gym hall at the school etc.

@PuttingDownRoots that’s good to know re not knowing who was new or not. I think it usually is easier making friends that young. I do remember in primary everyone was friends with everyone. Like an extended family.
our zoned primary school only has one primary per year so I don’t think it’s that big compared to some others! So even if LO stays private the ratio would be similar in the 3-5 room to primary one… I think…

the private nursery is a 30 minute walk so I don’t think there will be many kids going to same school - .

But i have made some mum friends who live on the same street/round the corner from going to local park etc so maybe LO will already have friends at same school regardless of nursery…

I would kind of like a balance of both to work out… but guess we will have to see at the time.
I really do tend to over think things though lol

So glad you asked this OP as I've been wondering the same. My DS is only 2 but I'm already so indecisive about next year 🤣

We are the same as you. The school nursery is walking distance, private nursery is quite an annoying journey.

They do open earlier though & I work part to but start early.

I'm also worried about him making friends as none of his private nursery friends are going to go to the same school.

I don't understand wrap around care, are you guaranteed to get it? Or do you book it?

Such a tricky decision and some really helpful replies here

@Mondayblues23 Oh my little one is even younger 😂

indinr know if wrap around care works differently in different areas but (I’m in Scotland btw)
as far as I’m aware need to pay a yearly subscription fee (I don’t think it’s much)
and then book in what you will need?
I think once you’re in it’s fine I guess? I don’t know why everything seems so complicated lol
i don’t even understand how the 20% discount on childcare fees works…
im not sure how limited spaces are so what happens if too many people apply or if they just meet the demand etc

They are still so young starting reception they soon make friends and no one I know who has started without nursery friends has had any problems.
Going to a nursery attached to a school doesn't mean you'll get into that primary school.
It's still a lottery when you do school applications.

I'm north England and for wrap around care you can pay in chunks or pay as you go.

Thank you @DESGUSTING & @Bree82 and sorry for hijacking the thread with my own question 🤣🤣

That does make sense.

@Bree82 well you can never be too organised I think! The tax free childcare thing took me ages to get my head around! Once you set up your account (If you haven't already) it kind of makes sense.

For our nursery, it's not the same amount every month, depending on whether is a 4/5 week month. So say if nursery is £200 a week I'd pay in £160 then an hour or so later it tops it up with £40. It shows up as money you've paid in (so you can take it out) and money the government has paid in. They top up 20% on what you've put in. Then every month we made a one off payment to nursery of whatever their invoice says.

We use this calculator taxfreechildcarecalculator.com to work out what to put on each time. Does that make sense? I'm not good at explaining 🤣

There are a couple of primaries mear me that have agreements with the council and attending their nursery is higher than distance on their application criteria so that might be an issue, although I think it is rare.

We sent ours to school nursery as quite a few of their private nursery friends were moving at the same time - I didn't have a strong opinion either way but it felt nice to do it with others and made the transition seemless for them. School nursery has actually been great, my middle child is very advanced and does some bits with reception and they have the facilities to do a lot more with him that they would in a private nursery but I don't think leaving them in private nursery would be detrimental at all.

My main concern would be school nursery and then they don't get into that school for reception and they end up moving again, depends how sure you are they will get in.

@Mondayblues23 I think that makes sense lol. I’ll check out the link thanks.
@ZebraKid71 oh that’s a good point re getting in from nursery. I’ll have to find out if that’s the case for our zoned school… my step children went there but they’ll be long gone before LO starts so it’s not even like we can apply to keep siblings together… :/