The difference between a nursery attached to a school V an independent nursery

[Lemonadesquish]

Hi

Just in the process of looking at nursery options for my soon to be 3 year old. Please can anyone advise what the main differences are? She isn’t very outgoing and so far I have been her only source of child care so I’m wanting to make the right decision for her.

Thank you.

It depends, but usually a nursery attached to or linked with a primary school means that most of the children who attend that nursery/preschool will go to that school and all know each other at the start of reception. That can help with settling into school.

Attending a nursery linked with a school doesn't have any involvement with admissions though, so just because your child went to the nursery doesn't mean they'll automatically get a place at the school (as my sister discovered!)

2dc, each did a different type of nursery. Dd1 went to a private nursery until school because the school nurserys would only allow mornings or afternoons and I worked full-time as a teacher so couldn't take her. She had a slight wobble on starting reception as all the other kids knew each other. She got over it and made friends v quickly.
Dd2 went to a school nursery full-time. New area allowed this to happen. She started reception without any issues at all and loves it.

If I had a choice and I knew DC would definitely get into that school for reception, I'd choose a school nursery.

The school nursery hours will be inflexible and you won’t have the choice to pay for them to go in the holidays like you might at a day nursery.

The school nursery will have a qualified teacher. (Probably)

A school nursery is shut for the school holidays though isn’t it? My children’s nursery is open 50 weeks of the year, and most of them go to the same school as the school nursery ones so that was my deciding factor.

I moved my DS1 from a completely independent nursery to a private nursery within a school grounds. It's the best of both worlds - open 51 weeks a year but they do plays in the school hall, use the school playground etc. which I hope will get him used to a school environment a bit. Unfortunately we are outside the catchment so it's likely he'll have to start again friendship-wise at his school.

My DS2 will be going to the new school nursery when DS1 starts, but it has good wrap around care & both boys will be off together in the holidays.

After experiencing a nursery attached to a school & a private one, I'd go for school every time.

DD did both. I pulled her out of the pre-school in the end because they weren't doing anything to ready them for school (which baffled me). The main difference i noticed aside from the flexibility was the resources. The pivate nursery had far more resources at its disposal than the pre-school.

My DD wouldn't have been going to the attached school anyway but a number of her nursery friends went to the school she attends. She never had any issues settling in

My kids went to a state funded nursery school not attached to a primary school. Called a foundation nursery. You get the best of both worlds there: trained teachers, few kids, 3-yr-old focused.

Dd did private nursery, ds preschool. Private had smaller staff ratios, flexible hours, open all year, personal update at the end of the day, easier to discuss concerns. Preschool had set hours, school holidays, (still had to have child minder for drop off and school hols), 1 teacher and 2 classroom assistants, no handover, much more like a school setting. Both were fantastic in developing the children. Dd knew only 1 person when she started school, ds knew a handful as only 10 from nursery got into the school and they put 5 in each class. Both were totally prepared for reception. I think the main benefit in using a private nursery for me was the flexibility in the hours and year round childcare.

As others have said, usually school nurseries are school hours (9-3 ish) and term time only. Independent nurseries are more likely to offer more flexibility (ours offered 8-6 and any range of hours in between) and was year round (only closed between Christmas and New Year). On a whole, independent nurseries tend to cater more towards working parents and schools to those who just want a bit of a preschool experience ahead of starting school. Obviously, with a school nursery there is also a greater likelihood that your dc will start school with the same group of children (assuming you get into the attached school). That can be a good thing, but isn't necessarily (if your dc haven't developed strong friendships, then there could actually be a benefit to starting somewhere fresh when they start reception). You probably also have less variety in school nurseries. I've found they tend to be fairly similar. Where as private nurseries can offer a lot more variety - some are primarily outdoors-based forest schools, some take particular approaches like Montessori or Waldorf Steiner, etc.

We personally went with a private nursery independent of the school and I'm glad we did. It was primarily because we needed greater flexibility as we both work full-time (though I was part-time when she started) and we needed somewhere that was year round. I was also impressed with the approach they take which was very much around outdoor learning and child led play, etc. and the school nursery didn't really do that as well. In retrospect, it was also really beneficial for her to not got into reception with all the same kids. She started reception with 2 friends from nursery, but the other 9 kids were brand new and it's been really good for her to branch out and develop new friendships and not just be stuck with the same friends all the way into school. I don't think she would have been as outgoing or as social if she'd already known everyone, but it's been lovely to see her make new friends at school.

DD1 did two 9-3 days at the local preschool and two 8-6 days at private nursery. In the holidays she did 4 days at private nursery.

It's worked well because we still had the childcare 51 weeks a year but she has started school with some familiar faces.

You should enquire at your local nurseries - in our areas, school-based nurseries have a fully qualified teacher, a fully qualified nursery nurse, and teacher assistants. They are much more focused on learning through play, with lots of outdoor educational resources.

In private nurseries, the qualifications are different - they generally have one or two staff members with a level 3 NVQ in childcare, which is not on par with a fully qualified teacher.

But again, it depends on the setting. Just ask.

Not better or worse, just different. In a private nursery, you are a customer (you can drop them off and pick them up at your convenience, within reason). At a school nursery, you are part of the system. School will want to start out laying down ‘good habits’ like attendance. Access to outdoor space may depend on when it’s not being used by the ‘big school’. Part time places are often hard to come by. But there may be more structure, and the class will be overseen by early years teachers (backed up by phase leaders and school management).

We moved to school nursery at 3 and it was absolutely the right thing to do. Going from a small, very caring, nursery straight into a Reception class of 30 (and a cohort of 90) would have been a real challenge for my boy, but going via a ‘key worker group’ of 10 in a 40 place nursery (with an amazing keyworker) meant he was ready to handle going into Reception much better, and had some strong friendships in his class already. School had a better idea of his strengths and weaknesses, so he got the right level reason books and extra help with his motor skills from Day 1.

Ummm...’reading books’.

another benefit of school based nursery is that they have access to a fully qualified SENCO (special needs coordinator) if you have developmental concerns about your child. In out school, that also meant access to specially trained teacher assistants in speech development, which was very important to us.

Wow, so much to think about. Thank you app for your comments and taking the time to reply, sticking to school term times isn’t too much of a problem, I am only going back to work two days a week and work seem prepared by the sounds of it to work around the holidays. I have a bit of research to carry out I think! If I knew she would get into the school if she attended the pre school it would be a definite plus, but I know it doesn’t work like that!

@lemonadesquish what did you end up doing for your DD? I'm in the same boat, trying to decide whether to send my DD to school nursery full time after only having been with me. Would love to know your experience.