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.

if you hadn’t said you are in scotland i would have thought you lived near me as i had exactly the same decison - we went Forest School

no question - happier staff and my daughter has thrived and absolutely loves all types of weather and the outdoor world - i hope it’s going to be something for
her mental and physical health all her life

@dreamyballoon no i haven't i can't see anything on their website about it

The courtyard has a mural painted around it and a slide but there's not a whole lot of room for running

"Go with the the flow" for a nursery is a deliberate, child-led philosophy, rather than being a bit less organised than a teacher-directed approach. My DD2 attended two settings and preferred the child-led, less structured one (she's not a big fan of being told what to do). Both settings did a bit of child-led and adult-led, so both prepared for school, it was just the balance that differed. DD1 only went to the child-led one and had no problems with the transition to primary school. But the relaxed environment really helped her when she was the oldest child in the year, it enabled her to explore things and also spend extra time with adults.

This is exactly what I was going to say. I would avoid too much 'organised' activity. It's a, shame the outside space is small but if you go out a lot on the other 2 days, that could balance out. Personally I would put a 9 month old in the small one and maybe transfer for the final year. I don't think 3 years of any setting is good, especially that last year. They just get bored and outgrow it. A change of staff and toys and children is great in that last year before school unless your child is neurodiverse and really struggles with change.

I'd say that the extent to which a child out-grows a setting depends on the setting and the child. My DD1 out-grew her first nursery at 2.5 when all of the older children from her room moved up to the next room and the nursery said she would never be with children from the academic year above again. I even had parents asking me why their child had moved and mine hadn't as DD1 used to chat to the other parents when they came for pick up.

Moving her to a child-led nursery was an absolute revelation. She started in their youngest room, because they only started at 2 years. She made friends and they gradually moved up to the next room. After a couple of months, the manager said to me "she's moved herself up to the next room, is that ok with you?" None of the rigidity of her old nursery, just them allowing her to know what worked for her. They obviously also had the staff ratios to allow it, which doesn't happen unless you put children first.