How do you find term time only nurseries

[tiredmuma1]

Sorry still trying to get my head around childcare as I'm a FTM

I've phoned 20 nurseries in my area all of which are completely private and only interested in 4 half days minimum or 2 full days which in my opinion is not needed for my family just yet

I just want a term time 9-3 so I can opt for AM or PM only how do I find this ?

I’m not following why you don’t want him to go to nursery during the school holidays? Why are they relevant to you at all when you don’t have another child in school?

What you want is a nursery that offers fewer days. Some private nurseries will have kids who are there 3 or 4 days a week if a parent works part time. You could potentially fill in the rest of the week so some private ones might like that arrangement.

They will have a standard charge for a half day but just because they open at 7 am it doesn’t mean your child has to be there at 7, you can drop him off at 8 or 9.

Thank you the only reason I was looking term time is because the overall hours were less o those which follow those times.

When I called local nurseries all of which are private every single one said they had to do a minimum of say 20 hours a week I'm guessing to ensure they recieve payment around any funding.

Sounds like you want a school nursery. They tend to be 9-3, or half days 9-12 and term time only. Mostly it’s the term after they turn 3, so for your October child it would be a January start and I think you’d get 15 hours funded per week in term time.

What primary school will he be going to or hopefully going to? I’d start there.

I appreciate not all areas are the same, so all the above might not apply! But in my area that’s how it works

@Caterina99 that's extremely helpful thank you. I think I just misunderstood the information I had and then ran away with myself 🤣 thank you again!

A private nursery might say their 'half day' rate is 7-12, but most parents aren't dropping at 7am. There's usually a load of working parents dropping between 8-9am, sometimes 9:30 if they do school run first. You don't have to send them the entire time - it's just the nursery's way of explaining how many hours you'd be entitled to if you pay their half-day rate.

Pre-schools attached to primary schools are term time only, and only short school hours. My DS attends twice a week (he's at private nursery longer hours the other days as I work FT), but even at the preschool they had minimum hour commitments and wouldn't just offer 2 mornings for example. They have a rule that it must be 2 full days, or 4 half days at ours - this is partly to ensure they can get the most out of a space and also due to some children finding settling in very difficult if just for a couple of hours each week (along with big gaps for school hols). So you'll need to look around and enquire as they will all have differing rules.