Opinions requested - preschool at different school to reception and beyond.

[RedIvy18]

My DD is just over 2.5 (birthday end of August) and currently at a private nursery 2 days per week, which she loves.

From September she will be eligible to start preschool for 2.5 hours on weekdays. We have applied for the local state preschool and she has been offered a place. Her current private nursery do wraparound for the preschool in question.

We have decided to send DD to a private school from reception class onwards, they have a preschool class but we have decided to keep her at her current nursery until reception/for as long as possible as she adores it, they are brilliant, outstanding ratings and they offer school holiday care.

My question is whether it is actually worth sending her to the state preschool for one academic year 2.5 hours a day before she goes the other school? The school is good and she knows a couple of the kids who will attend the preschool. The nursery have said that the preschool is more structured so that might potentially be a good thing for her.
However, I know that she would be happy attending the her current nursery for full days and not going to preschool, also I'm wondering whether it's worth her settling into a whole new environment just for one academic year - i.e would it be confusing meeting a load of new kids & teachers, plus wearing the uniform etc before being moved to another school for reception... For reference she is pretty confident and outgoing, settles pretty well in new situations and with others.

I might be overthinking this but would be grateful for people's thoughts!

If it was me, I would keep them in nursery full time.

My rationale would be that the main benefits of preschool are more academic-focussed staff and a chance to get to know the school. If you're sending her to (a presumably good) private school, I honestly wouldn't be too bothered about the ABCs as the school will be all over that. The nursery will also follow the EYFS curriculum, so will cover the basics anyway. And familiarising herself with a school that then changes won't be a benefit. So keeping her in nursery with consistent caregivers then makes more sense.

But I don't think either option is 'bad', so please don't stress about which one you choose!

Definitely keep her at nursery. What they need at this age is familiarity, nurturing and free play, not learning and structure. They both have to follow the exact same curriculum. So why cause all the disruption?

We had a similar choice and kept dd at nursery. Their "preschool" class (so 3+) has been brilliant at getting them prepared for school so if it's a decent nursery I'm sure they'll do the same. She won't know any children when she starts school but i think it has been really good to give her a really stable period of childcare from 1-4.5.

My son went to preschool and I really can't see any difference in what they're trying to teach in academic terms. Both did counting, a few letters, painting/drawing, messy play, books, games etc. if anything the nursery has been a little more comprehensive.