School nursery - advice/experiences

[Newballlancexo]

DS is 3, 4 in December. So if we sent him to school nursery it'd just be for a school year.

He's currently in private nursery, amazing staff who adore him and his little sis and hes got little friends there! Some kids are going to school nursery and I get it helps them meet other kids they'll go to school with etc

Im back and forth on it. A few things make me against it

• hes potty trained but still has accidents in pre school? He gets distracted easy and his wee accidents happen when hes playing and busy. He knows hes weed as he tells someone or he just misses the loo but I know school nursery wont accept this
• hes very nervous of new environments and people and shy. My worry would be the lack of it being personal will upset it and he'll hate it. He sometimes struggles going in to normal nursery but loves it and the people!
• im part time and have the kids 2 days a week, I'd be sad to give up 2 full days alone with him as hed go in for 5 and obviously love our days together as a 3! Before the weekend as a family❤️

Some points for it

• it'll help him get used to his primary school and make friends with people he'll join with
• it may help confidence in larger groups as its a more classroom setting ?

I dont know! What's your experiences??

We just signed our June born age 3 for September and I have similar concerns, ours isn’t really fully potty trained and so we have to get this sorted by then

I’m absolutely dreading it but everyone tells me it will be so good for him, I’m so torn!

interested to hear other views too…

Keep him in the nursery!
They are at school SUCH a long time, keep him where he is happy

Both mine stayed in private nursery and adjusted really easily to school. The two things I’d consider:

Who will stay on at his nursery and who will leave? I’d be inclined to go where friends go, all other things being equal. If everyone is leaving and he’ll only be there with the 2 year olds, that’s probably the only reason I’d consider moving.

How does it impact your work schedule? It sounds like you will lose your days off with him. If you don’t need the childcare, I’d stick with a couple days a week. He has the rest of his childhood to rush off to school 5 days a week. And will you need childcare in the school holidays? Do not underestimate how much easier life is before school starts and you aren’t giving up all your AL to cover childcare. If private nursery means you have school holiday cover, hang on to it.

On our area, attending school nursery doesn’t guarantee a place in reception

Is it the school he will get a place at? In our area you are guaranteed to get a place in reception at your catchment school. Catchments do not overlap here.
If yes send him as he’ll get used to the school, they should offer school dinners and join in with Christmas plays, sports day etc

Do you definitely have to do all 5 days in school? At ours when it was 15 hours you could choose just say 2 or 3 mornings rather than all 5. Some people even split the hours between the two settings.

The purpose of Reception is to prepare them for school.

Find out the full information first re times and dates. It's unlikely you'll have to send him all 5 days. It'll likely cost a lot less as your free hours will cover the shorter days and term time only. If he'll definitely go to school there, it can help with the transition especially with more nervous children.
It shouldn't feel any less personal than a private nursery. You may find there is less updating of apps/logs and more of a curriculum covered, but that's not a bad thing.

If you want the best of both worlds switching him for summer term next year. He gets all the Reception transition days and begins to make friends. Surely it's not all or nothing this coming September?

Also check about the wee thing. Our pre school takes from 2yr9 months and weren't fussed about whether a child is potty trained or not. A lot of kids are dry but have occasional accidents in Reception anyway. My DS was dry for wees but had to go in a nappy for poo. He was fully trained for months (trained before 2) but nursery freaked him out with constantly changing his key worker and not supporting us at home so he regressed. Within two weeks at our school pre school he was completely dry again.

@ Whatshesaid96 I very much doubt they would be able to go just for the summer term. Most school nurseries have one intake a year in September. I presume you already have a place offered for September. As others have said it doesn't normally guarantee you a place in Reception so do you live very close that you are almost 100% sure of a place in Reception. A lot of the school nursery classes around us take the children for 5 mornings or 5 afternoons but some are a bit more flexible. It is not usually 5 full days. Do you know what sessions you would get and whether they will fit with your work and other child at nursery. As someone mentioned there is also school holidays to consider.
However if the majority of children go to the nursery class and follow on into the Reception and only one or two join at Reception they are at a disadvantage for a while. It depends on the school setup but at ours the Foundation Stage, Nursery and Reception, did a lot together, shared spaces for child initiated play inside and outside, often mixed groups for different activities, shared sports day, Christmas Play and Christmas Parties. The nursery class was very much part of the school and so got used to all the routines and where everything was in school. We found those joining from day nurseries into Reception took longer to settle and often weren't quite as ready to learn and as independent.