Hi there I'm looking for some advice as my head is spinning and I can't be objective about this decision we have to make!! Sorry, it's long but hopefully concise!
My DD is in her ante pre school year in a private nursery and attends 3 full mornings each week. I've started to think about whether she stays there for her pre school year or moves to a local authority nursery attached to the school we want her to go to.
I was very keen to do this as I was unsure of the transition arrangements between the private nursery and the school. I've since spoken to the nursery mgr who explained the arrangements and I'm really happy with how they sound (although tbh it is in her interest to persuade me of that!)
To complicate matters, the school we want DD to go to is outside of our catchment so we have to make a placing request for both the school and the nursery. However even if she gets a nursery placement, there is no guarantee that she will get a school placement, so if she did move to the attached nursery, she could potentially have made that move for nothing. The mgr at current nursery has advised that if we did stay at current nursery, we would find out about the school decision in plenty of time to change DDs transition plan to second choice school.
I was also concerned that she wouldnt know many children at the school if she was coming from a private nursery, but the numbers for this year for both school choices are reasonable enough. I love her current nursery and really would love her to stay there, and I feel that, having spoken to the mgr, it would be possible for that to happen without DD suffering wrt to transition or knowing other children.
DD goes to nursery all year round and I also worry that if she did move to a local authority nursery, she would take a long time to adjust and get to know key workers etc as each day is only 2.5hrs long. My final (!) concern is that if we reject a place at the LA nursery, could this be held against us when requesting a school place?? Would really appreciate all opinions on either the placement process or what you would do in our shoes. Thanks so much.
NB we have been told that the LA nursery is fully subscribed I.e. no placing requests being granted for this year, and we will need to wait until April to find out about our (next) year. Thanks!