Choosing a nursery

[peaches36]

My son is 2 and he will be starting nursery in April 2022, so he will have just turned 3. We’re going to visit a few nurseries this week and was curious what you all look for in a nursery/what kind of questions I should be asking.

For us it was mainly about getting a feel of the place. Going to see it when the kids are around, seeing how they interact. Check prices (and check with the 30 free hours included as they often charge extra for meals, activities etc). We liked to know things like what extra activities they do (bilinguasing, diddikicks etc) and how often they went out for walks etc. Ofsted rating I’m presuming you’re taking into account if it’s important to you? But yes, mainly getting a feel for the place. We tried a few before we found the right one for us but it was definitely the right one.

Also a lot of nurseries don’t let you take weeks ‘off’ or change days without charging, again if it’s something you need it might be worth asking. And maybe what happens if you need to isolate due to burst bubble- do you still pay? (Hopefully won’t matter in April though!)

Look how big the nursery is and how many children there are in the room at any one time.

Have a look at staff turnover.

Look at the menu and make sure its decent.

What activities/trips out do they offer? Do they do these regularly or are they few and far between? The nursery my DS goes to do boogie mites, yoga, forest days and cookery fridays where the older ones will make their own lunches

We chose the nursery attached to our preferred school. She’s staying on for reception so it will be an easy transition and they’ve done a great job of getting her ready got school. She’s also had lots of lessons with the specialist teachers just like the bigger kids e.g. French, PE, Ballet, Drama. The downside is that it’s term time and school hours only.

General feel of the place, staff turnover, outside space, menu's, what they are trained in (speech etc), activities, nap space.
We viewed a couple and chose the first one we had seen. The outside space was bigger than the others and on nice days (not as hot as lately) they take it all outside.

Outdoor space was a big factor for me as mine loves being outdoors. What activities they do. Menu and how they cater for dietary requirements. How the staff interacted with the children. How the manager interacted with everyone - I went to one and the manager didn't seem to know anyone's name.

Thank you all!

We will be utilising the 30 hours and he’ll be going for 3 days a week at the moment. Such a tricky thing I’m fretting over choosing the right nursery!

Don't stress, it's like choosing a house, you know soon as you walk in 😂

If the kids already there look mostly happy and energetic it’s probably a good nursery!

Look for happy children and happy staff.

A good outdoor play area, lots of activities on offer, food and drink options. Don't just look at the pre school room, look at all the rooms, you want to know that the babies are being nurtured as that ethos will move through the nursery.

Drill down on their 30 free hours policy as every nursery round here does it differently. For example, my child's nursery allocates 10 hours a day and you pay a top up of around £25 a day. If your child was in nursery full time, you'd pay a full day rate for the other two days. Some will offer term time only, some won't.

Our main criteria was outdoor space and activities. We absolutely didn’t want my daughter stuck indoors. We found a nursery with a couple of acres of land, woodland and a small farm. We looked at OFSTED reports and talked to staff about turnover. What really sold it for us was all of the children running and playing outside. They all looked so happy compared to some other nurseries we’d seen.