day nursery/ preschool- whats the difference

[krisskross]

My son will be 3 in september and I am going back to work soon foor 2 days a week. He will be going to some kind of 'day care' for these 2 days.

I've looked at a few places and am wondering what is the difference between a nursery, day nursery and pre school?

I'd also like any views on why some charge about £25 for a day (830-4) and others are £65 (8-6). Whats the difference?

What should I look for?

Thanks!

Generally, a day nursery is designed to be childcare while you are working, a nursery is usually attached to a school and keeps to terms, and a preschool is termtime and often not in their own building and managed by volunteers

A day nursery tends to operate longer hours which are more likely to be compatible with an adults working day. A nursery will usually take babies or children under 3 years. A preschool is usually offered from 2 years 9 months and often operates using sessions (morning or afternoon) although this is changing and preschools are being asked to be more flexible and some offer all day.

Your child will be entitled to 15 hours of funded time per week term time the term after they are 3. This is regardless of whether or not they go to preschool or nursery. If your child spends longer then the nursery or preschool can ask you pay to cover the extra hours. You can use your 15 hours over 5 days or put them together for your 2 days. Some places will only allow you 3 hour sessional blocks eg. you would get 4 sessions of 3 hours over 2 days funded. depending on your working hours this may mean you need to pay something aswell.

Preschools are not run by volunteers. It is a legal requirement that a NVQ level 3 qualified member of staff is on site at all times during opening hours. If not Ofsted will close the preschool or nursery down. Many preschools have people working towards or with their foundation degrees on staff.

Agree that a day nursery is 'childcare' designed to provide full day care, (anytime between 6am and 6pm depending on the setting).

However, these days nursery/preschool/playgroup can all be used to describe sessional early years provision that provides 2.5 or 3 hours of free 'education' for 3-4 year olds. Some settings also offer additional hours or wrap around care for a top up fee.

Nursery schools or nurseries attached to schools are part of the maintained sector and are run by a teacher with an assistant with a ratio of 1 adult to 13 children.

Settings in the Private,Voluntary and Indepedent Sector (PVI)will often take children from 2 yrs and charge a fee until the children are eligible for the free sessions. If they are offering more than 2 hours per day they are registered with Ofsted and managed by a level 3 qualified member of staff with at least 50% of the rest of the staff qualified to level 2.

Ratios are higher in these settings with 1:3 for children under 2, 1:4 for two year olds and 1:8 for children aged 3-7 years.

Thanks everyone, this is very helpful.