Thinking outside the box/Blue sky thinking.......or completely and totally mad

[KatyMac]

Remember the Nursery that never was??

Well I had an idea

A school a few miles away had to lose a teacher last year because it was too small

So they have an empty room........so can I use the empty room to run a nursery in?

Or is that a complete no-no?

Throw problems at me......I can brain storm "think laterally"

Tbh I didn't think you could opt out either but apparently the phase-in is extended for playgroups etc due to funding issues.

I am very by the way- I have thought about opening my own nursery for years and probably will still be thinking about it years from now! Good luck!

I have been thinking about it for about it for over 3 yrs with cash forecasts/loans/premises etc - then the credit crunch happened

If you search on MN for 'eco-nursery' you will find thousands (& thousands) of posts/threads about it

Thanks KatyMac I'll have a butchers.

I think this was the first ever thread....maybe?

You don't have to have two rooms, and I would imagine (can't be sure) that any state school classroom would have to be large enough to accomodate 30 kids. You would probably therefore be looking at space large enough for 20-24 two to five year olds.

I'd limit the numbers of two year olds if I were you, as you don't really make much profit with that age group (the ratios make it impossible for you to do so), but don't apply for registration with Ofsted as a nursery able to accomodate (for example) 24 children of whom no more than 8 must be under three. Remember, two year olds grow up and you have to be prepared to make a loss on them in the first year.

That's very true - it must be bigger than I remembered (or I am not a good judge of size by memory )

Mind you my current ratio is 1:3 so 1:4 is automatic profit

1:8 is positively luxurious (or very hard work)