Preschool/ term time only nursery & Holiday Club

[sunshinedaisies00]

Does anyone that works mostly full time, use a term time only nursery or preschool?

Im looking at moving my DS nursery and due to huge wait lists, we may not get into one with all year cover.

One i’m looking at is a preschool with holiday club that covers

All of the February Half Term
1 week of easter holiday
All of the may half term
summer holidays 3 out of 6 weeks covered
December holidays - we need to cover

I have got a family member who could cover 1-2 days a week, the rest we can split between DP and I with leave.

Does anyone else work and have term time only preschool?
I guess those that have children in school are already doing this!

do you find it manageable?

Ah - you might be looking at our school nursery!

We have this exact arrangement and muddle through the closure weeks with AL, grandparents and a local childminder who does ad hoc care.

It isn't ideal especially the long 3 week stretch over the summer but the nursery itself is so good that we put up with it. They actually introduced the closure periods after we moved nurseries otherwise we might not have moved.

School children are easier as there are other holiday clubs they can access, but most locally don't take children under reception age.

It’s much easier to have them in year round nursery if you need year round care. Unless you are moving away or there are serious concerns about the nursery, I personally wouldn’t move.

But yes, we have done it (house move to totally different part of the country and only one preschool/nursery option).

Holiday club is not preschool. There will be dc there up to 12. It tends to be a bit more ‘lax’ - more movies and gaming, but there are also usually some trips out.

The only things I’d say is thinking about what you’ll do if you don’t get a spot in holiday club. Ours opens bookings about 3 months in advance and I have to set an alarm on my phone to book. The spaces are gone within 30 minutes or so.

They also aren’t as reliable. They are generally only 3 days a week, but sometimes they’ll do 4 or 5 days, but the next time around only 3 days. So you can’t really plan AL far in advance because you think they’ll be open all week the week before Easter, but they’ve decided to only offer 3 days. They sometimes change around the weeks too. Like this year, I don’t think they are opening at all in the May half term, whereas last year they did.

Yes, you will have to do it in school anyway, but it’s so much easier not to if you don’t have to. If you really don’t have a choice, you make it work.

Ideally id like a nursery with all year round cover, but it is not easy to move with the large waiting lists.

@mindutopiainteresting you mention holiday club not being like preschool, I will find out what this holiday club is like as thats an important point!

We do but only because I give my poor mum the best weeks so she can come visit and do childcare! I think it requires 14 weeks, my husband and I get about 5-6 weeks each so my husbands parents help is also necessary. Though next year I’ll be on mat leave so it’ll be perfect with the funding!