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Nurseries

Find nursery advice from other Mumsnetters on our Nursery forum. For more guidance on early years development, sign up for Mumsnet Ages & Stages emails.

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Original poster

Is it harmful for a four year old to only do two days a week in nursery?

17 replies

letitallopen · 08/12/2025 16:28

DD is two, summer born so starts school in September 2027.

I only work two days a week as this fits into childcare for my older son but I’m a little bit worried that only doing two days might not be beneficial to her and she might struggle to adjust when she goes up to five days at school. Any thoughts?

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Luxio · 08/12/2025 16:30

Not harmful at all lots of children don't do 5 days before starting school.

I'm assuming she won't be at the school nursery so all the others won't be doing 5 days together.

Original poster

letitallopen · 08/12/2025 16:31

No - the school doesn’t have a nursery. I had wondered if two to five (days) might be a bit of a shock and if I should try to increase her to three.

OP posts:

HarryVanderspeigle · 08/12/2025 16:32

If you are happy with the current set up then no need to change. Doing more time doesn't really get them ready for anything and so much will change in their development by the time school starts.

Hdbnfnbrjebfb · 08/12/2025 16:33

My son did just this and went up to five days in reception this September mostly fine. There was some tiredness that would have perhaps been less if he’d been in a school nursery five days, but no major problems.

I would worry a little if you’re keeping her in a nursery with mostly younger children. My sons nursery was set up with classes for the older children as there was about 40 in the 3-4.5 year range and they had good links with the schools so could prep them well for what the schools wanted. He was in a different, ‘younger’ nursery initially and he might have struggled with the transition if he’d stayed there. Maybe not though, who knows.

Edenmum2 · 08/12/2025 16:35

OP relish this time with her, it goes super quick and I think you’d regret having all that time away from her unnecessarily. My DD started nursery at 3 and only does 2 days and that’s plenty to get her ‘ready’ for school. Time with you is more important.

Original poster

letitallopen · 08/12/2025 16:35

Don’t most nurseries room children according to their age? Genuine question, I assumed they did! Ours have the baby room, two rooms for older / younger toddlers then the preschool room

OP posts:

Hdbnfnbrjebfb · 08/12/2025 16:42

Yeah they do. I just moved from an area where every school had a nursery attached so any kept in private nursery instead always seemed to be in more stretched age groups.

TheNightingalesStarling · 08/12/2025 17:06

Both school nurseries and private ones follow the EYFS curriculum.

But if she's two now, just wait and see what happens. My eldest did 2.5 days in a private nursery, and hercsister 5 mornings on a school nursery and neither was more "school ready"

Pacificsunshine · 08/12/2025 17:14

I think it’s fine.

TheSmallAssassin · 08/12/2025 17:17

Ours both went to nursery two days a week (one day with each of us, one day with grandparents) and it worked fine for us. I think one day isnt enough. Our infant school built them gradually up to 5 full days anyway (but this was about 15 years ago!)

user2848502016 · 08/12/2025 18:07

No of course not, with my eldest DD the year before starting reception I was on maternity leave with DD2 for most of it so DD1 did 4 mornings in nursery class (2.5h) and the rest of the time with me. She didn’t have any problems adjusting.

Sunshineclouds11 · 08/12/2025 21:20

tbh to be school ready, they want the children to be able put their own coats on, shoes on, follow instructions etc.

all reception kids are knackered the first few weeks, they get them settled into a routine so I don't think it's a worry doing 2 days

3ormorecharacters · 08/12/2025 21:28

Do you have any local church / community preschools? Much cheaper than a day nursery (usually covered by funded hours) and short days with the option of morning only. Might be a good middle ground. DD has just started school, she did 4 days a week at preschool for the year before starting school. I think she'd have been bored at home 5 days a week.

ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy · 08/12/2025 21:28

My DS did two and a half days private nursery close to where I worked. I didn’t change it to the school nursery as they were daily PT hours and wouldn’t have fit in with my work. I think it was harder for him the first couple of days as he didn’t know any of the other children and it was a strange place for him, but he’d settled in and made friends by the end of the week. I wouldn’t say it was more tiring going to school as he was in nursery two days until 5/6 pm and the days he didn’t go, we were up and out to other activities anyway.

theunbreakablecleopatrajones · 08/12/2025 21:32

Depends on her I would say - if you think she'd benefit from more activity, up it, if not, not. It might take her slightly longer to adjust to school but it will even up quickly enough.

Original poster

letitallopen · 08/12/2025 21:48

It isn’t so much the activity levels as being with a group of other children and following a routine I guess. The other complicating factor is that the days she does are a Monday and a Friday. So long gap in the middle!

OP posts:

Crumpt · 08/12/2025 22:00

Both mine did no bother. One was summer born. I didn't want to send them to nursery/pre-school on extra days for the sake of it when they could have a lovely day with me, their dad or their grandparents instead. I'm a teacher and generally quite highly strung about doing school things right; this is something I really don't think is a big deal.

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