Would you choose the cheaper nursery or pay more for forest nursery?

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would you pick a cheap and cheerful nursery for £800 p/m for 3 days. The rooms are smaller and darker and theres very tiny concrete courtyard outside as the only outdoor space. Place seems friendly and kind but older scruffy toys. Good reviews (4.7), parents seem happy, no bad reviews. i would have no worries that my child would be treated well.

Or an amazing forest nursery for £1200 p/m for 3 days. 5 star all around. Larger outdoor space, very friendly and professional and on the ball, lots of outdoor activities, lots off light. Feels much higher standard with a great website talking about outdoor learning through play. It feeds into the local primary school and i feel would have a better chance of meeting mum friends but that's just because i've walked past them when they all collect. If we had more money i would pick this.

£400 is alot and we would feel it. We are not well off but also wouldn't go into dept. It would be the difference of putting the money into more days out and having more wiggle room financially, putting more away in savings/ towards holiday fund. We live a frugal life style, have a good enough savings pot to fall back on that we don't need to be topping up savings but need to heavily budget.

My feelings are all over the place. i hugely feel a pull towards the forrest nursery, but then i feel the pinch and think how much more fun we could have on weekends and days out with that money.

I feel would have a better chance of meeting mum friends
this is also important.

things I would go cheap and cheerful on with young children are holidays and clothes. Not childcare.

Are you eligible for the 30 funded hours? And tax free childcare?

I would choose where the staff feel kindest and where the staff turnover is lowest. Consistent, nurturing caregivers will outrank shiny new facilities any day of the week for me.

@Woob i'm in Scotland so no! Both nursurys had long time staff and felt kind. But the expensive one felt really on the ball and organised where the other one felt same kindness but just more go with the flow when it came to activities

As long as you’re not going to bankrupt yourself the more expensive one. Nursery will only be for a few years but it’s very important to pick the right one.
You can make savings elsewhere during the nursery years - we bought mostly second hand kids clothes and had UK seaside caravan holidays for example when ours were preschoolers

Forest school every time.

Can you keep looking for an option which is cheaper and doesn’t necessarily have all the extra bits, but does at least have a decent outdoor space and isn’t dark inside?

I don’t fully understand what you’re saying about your financial situation. You say the money would just go into savings or a holiday fund, but also that you have a decent enough savings pot that you don’t need to top it up. Does the more expensive nursery mean NO holidays or days out at all, or that you do them regularly but you can’t spend tons on them? I’d prioritise the better nursery over more holidays and days out in the latter case, but not if it means none/very very few.

I wouldnt put my child into a settong where they get limited outdoors access if I could avoid it. But my wete very outdoorsy, high energy children. I know others are happier indoors.

Could you do 1 day at the Forrest school and 2 days at the cheap one?

Is there not an inbetween? One with a better garden but less expensive than the all singing all dancing one?

I wouldn’t entertain the idea of the first nursery tbh, outdoors play and free flow outside is really important in early years and a big part of the EYFS curriculum.

I don’t know how old your DC is but once they’re in the 2yo room and onwards at our
Nursery they spend almost the whole summer and a lot of time the rest of the year outside. This isn’t a Forrest school nursery it’s just one with a great outdoor space.

Being outside has so many benefits for children.

There are significantly cheaper nurseries local to us but I have kept all of my DC at the one with the best outdoor space. Other nurseries have less variety of things they can do outside or have timed slots for different rooms.

My youngest went to a forest type school. Absolutely wonderful. I’d pay the extra every time.

It depends how old they are but for a baby/toddler this would be really quite disruptive.

I’m in two minds. My children loved being outside but I enjoyed doing all that with them. What I didn’t enjoy was all the crafty stuff, small word play, puzzles and indoorsy stuff so I personally would opt for the cheaper one and enjoy my time outside with my child.

Oof, that’s expensive! Is that with all the funding and tax free childcare? We were paying £1100 a month for 5 days FT in a lovely forest school nursery without any funding at all. I would double check your numbers.

Honestly, it’s 3 days a week. I would go for the cheaper one and use that extra money to make the other 4 days a week amazing.

I would go forest

Children who attend forest school for nursery get less sick (because they spend almost all their time outside). Might be important if it's the first time LO is going to nursery.

Generally I would go with lowest staff turnover/nicest staff but the tiny concrete courtyard would be a no for me.

How old is your child and how long would this be for? If it's for the year before school I would be leaning towards forest nursery. If you have 2 or 3 years there, I would go for the cheaper nursery - for the same instinct as your own that £400 a month is a lot that you can spend on fun activities with your child. It also gives you a buffer which you might want in years to come. I think it's hard to meet mum friends at nursery unless everyone picks up at the same time - people tend just to grab their children and go.

Also worth checking if the cheaper nursery has access to more outdoor space. Do they, for example, frequently take the cihldren to the local park?

Outdoor activities are really important for us as a family so a nursery that didn’t allow much or good quality outside time wouldn’t be a good fit. My kids love being outside, and their nursery has always had a free flow inside/outside setup.

How old is DC? When funding kicks in at 3, it’ll make a big difference. We pay £180 a month for DD2 to go 3 days a week, 48 weeks of the year (two weeks shut at Christmas, and two weeks of our choice, which we use for holidays).

“ It feeds into the local primary school”, OP school allocation isnt based on where they went to nursery.
is there any other option? Mine goes to a nursery with no outdoor space but they go out the whole morning to the park/ forest/playground

If you’re in Scotland, nursery doesn’t really matter for school, DC will just go to the school in your catchment area unless you apply out of catchment somewhere else and are accepted. There will be kids from various different nurseries going to the local primary school and others. Our nursery has kids going to four different primary schools due to catchments.

Some people choose to use the school nursery from 3 if they want them to get some experience of being there, but personally I haven’t bothered with either of ours, just kept them at their private nursery as I’ve felt the standard of care and surroundings (and smaller numbers of kids) is superior.

Nursery mattered most for us as my kids each knew one friend going to school with them and that helped a lot. They’re still friends with both of them today.

I personally prioritised outside time and paid extra for my kids to go to nurseries with nice gardens. A small courtyard wouldn’t be on my list.

If you can afford the forest nursery I’d go for that.

but otherwise if you like the cheaper one don’t feel guilty for using it.

DS went to a forest nursery. I even travelled out of the way to take him there whiles we had a perfectly good nursery on our road. I feel it's the best thing we could have done for him. He loved it so much and in the 2.5 years I can only remember one sicknesses he got from there and that was just a cold.

Forest nursery, at least ours, really work on confidence and independence. He learned fire safety, working with tools such as hammers, knives and potato peelers and lots of physical activity such as long walks, climbing and ballgames.

I always recommend forest schools if it is an option. You say you could technically afford it, then go for it. Kids have an entire childhood ahead of them sitting in classrooms.

God that is so expensive! Ours is £80 a month full time with home cooked meals and it’s actually in the forest too..

How long will he be there on each day? 8-6 is very diffrrent to 9-2 (as extreme examples)