Nursery

[chargedproton]

I’m going back to work in September and would like my baby to go to nursery 2/3 and half days a week.

When should I start looking for places? I feel like I have no time and the days are flying by!

What criteria do you look for when choosing a nursery?

Eg there’s three nurseries near my work place, one has a outstanding ofsted report which I like, one has a webcam service so I can look at my baby at all times which I like and there’s one newish nursery that I like the look of. So it’s hard to make a decision as I don’t know what I should be looking for!

Start looking now. Some nurseries have kids down on the list before they're born. My DS is on the list to start preschool in September and has been since at least last Sept.

I found my daughters Nursery whilst pregnant but when we moved house they had space so it wasn’t a concern. It entirely depends if there’s a waiting list at your chosen nursery so I’d start looking now.

My nursery had a 12 month waiting lost but couldn't put her on till she was born!

She's at another nursery atm and will be moved in next coupld of months when we get a space

I'm back to work in October and have booked my son into one earlier this month. But that's because we needed flexible hours as my partner works shifts, and only a few offer that around here. I looked for things like - are the children happy and smiling when you visit, are staff friendly and helpful, how many staff to children, do they get to go outside everyday, do they do an element of forest schools, how can you track their progress and wellbeing, how organised is the set up, is it a stimulating environment when you visit? There are a few checklists online that you can use. In the end, I found two that ticked the above boxes, and then we followed our gut instinct to make the final choice. Good luck.

I go back to work in April and started looking in November - most nurseries couldn't cater for the 4 full days that I wanted. Luckily, the nursery we chose had places coming available in April but only because they had babies moving into the toddler room.

Watch for how they interact with your baby, they should be interested in them as well as showing you around and answering questions. I liked it when other staff showed interest too.