Current Nursery v School Preschool

[PurplePetalPip]

Help! I need to choose between the two options by Monday and I need some guidance. DS is 3 and is going to school next September.

Option A - private nursery where DS has been since 8 months old. Attends 3 full days a week 8-5 and is all year round except for 2 week closure at Christmas. Reasonably settled there but since moving up to the preschool room in September has been reluctant to go. Even with the funded hours it costs about £400 a month. Lovely staff and good feel to the place, no issues with it other than the cost and DS reluctance.

Option B - move him to the preschool which is attached to (though not part of) the primary school he will go to. This would be for the same amount of days and hours but they do not do school holidays. The funded hours would mean we do not have to pay any additional fees at all. Looked around it, and it seems ok, has a good reputation though perhaps a bit less cosy than the nursery.

I'm so tempted by option B because money is rather tight for us at the moment and the savings would help significantly. The main issue is worrying about covering school holidays a year sooner than we need to though between me, my partner, parents and school teacher sister I think it's doable. I'm also worried about moving him although he moans going to nursery everyday anyway - though of course enjoys it once he is there!

Anyone with experience of moving a 3 year old?

Option B seems like a no brainer because of the cost saving but I'm so worried I won't be doing what's best for DS.

Do your parents and sister know they are being roped in to free childcare from here on out?

Do your parents and sister know they are being roped in to free childcare from here on out?

This!

Oh they are used to me taking advantage of them, don't worry

Hmm, I would personally be inclined to keep child where he is, if he’s happy. I think if he going to school in September, it’s not that far away, and he’s settled, whereas moving him would be a big transition, with another big transition in quick succession into school. Taking time to get to know another key person then again another teacher. I know it would be better for a savings point of view, but for the child’s interests I would keep them where they are. Also to have a nursery with space now for a preschool child going to school in September is a bit of a question mark because normally they are at full capacity. Obviously just my opinion but that would be my advice :)

@Snicksnacksnora thank you, those are some useful points. I hadn't thought about it being a potential red flag that they have space available... it's a village school so potentially a small catchment area but i just don't know and wouldn't want to make the move and regret it down the line.

No advise but we have this exact same dilemma! We are concerned about how easy it would be to switch over the 30 hrs funding to the new provider. We would also need to give old pre school 3 months notice. We would also have to put ds in to after school wrap around care but his ds is already at the school and so they will attend together.

We did this with our 2nd dc and it worked out so so well, far better than I could have predicted. The difference it made to starting reception was great - we also had an immediate comparison as other dc had started reception the year before but had stayed at nursery up until starting school, I then felt very foolish for not having moved her as she was far less ready for school plus I had paid loads of nursery fees for her too!

For us it was a no brainier to move to the preschool and I would do the same again

Have you checked that your son will definitely get into that school next September? Or are you assuming because it's a village you won't have an issue?

Our village is tiny and so is the school, so we're borderline whether we'd get a place based on distance despite living a five minute walk away. The past two years we'd have missed out on places due to distance! I know several of my neighbours just assume they'll definitely get a place at our village school and have never looked to see how tiny the area that gets in actually is.

If there's any question mark about whether he'd get into the primary school, I wouldn't move him. If it's basically certain he would get in, I'd consider it slightly more but ultimately I'd value not unsettling my child over the cost savings, given it's only a year until he starts school.

We had the same dilemma last year, ended up splitting between the two. It reduced our childcare bill, but also meant we didn’t have to fully commit into covering school holidays. Nursery were also happy to add in an extra day over the holidays if needed, as a fair few children did term time only.
Preschool was attached to the school, in fact shares a room with reception, so it made starting school a breeze. I would also say, even though DD is late summer born, by the spring term she had outgrown nursery, but was really enjoying preschool. She was oh so tired after a much shorter day there though, which did just show how much more stimulating it was.

To add - for us the 30 hours worked to cover 3 full days at preschool 8am - 5.30pm, using the school wraparound clubs, with no bill at all and we had 5 full terms of that from turning 3 to starting reception.

Was super easy moving the hours over as the preschool was operated by the council

@LoquaciousPineapple it's a 40 pupil intake and we live very close. We were told at the open day there was no way we wouldn't get in with where we live so that's not a concern but I get what you're saying - thank you.

@Mummyslittlegiraffe I've thought about splitting as well but I wasn't sure how well it would work. He only does 3 days so it would mean only being at the nursery 1 day a week.

@Imisschocolate17 that's super helpful thank you! Sounds very similar to what we would potentially do so good to know it worked out well. Did your little one have any trouble adjusting at all?