Nursery with no pre-school room for 3.5 year old?

[Marylandbiscuits]

Would appreciate opinions on whether I should be concerned about nursery and think about moving my son. He is 3.5 years old and due to start school next September, but there is no dedicated pre-school room in his nursery.

He has been at his current nursery since Feb 2026, when he was 2. It was a brand new nursery when he started and him and his younger sibling were one of the first kids. He is currently in a room with 2 / 2.5 year olds. He should now be moving to a pre-school room but the nursery don’t have enough kids to open the pre-school room and may not do so until he is due to start school.

nursery have said they will spend some time separating him and a few others from the younger kids to do pre-school activities. But it doesn’t sound like this will be for the majority of the day. There are 5 or so other kids in his age group in a similar situation.

This is his third childcare setting since the age of 1, so I’m reluctant to move him again (and he does have trouble settling). But I’m also worried he isn’t going to be properly prepared for school. We work long hours full time and while we do lots on the weekends, there is only so much we can realistically do on those two days, so we are reliant on nursery to help his development.

Are the no school nursery places available locally? Maybe combined with a child minder.

i think the nursery places in our local state schools are all full, but there are some pre-school places available in a few local private schools and the cost is cheaper than his current nursery

Are they doing circle time?
mark making
reading
numeracy through play
communication and emotion regulation
ask what they are doing age specific to get your child school ready

I'd consider moving him. My son was moved into the preschool room at nursery a little early so he could have the full year of prep before starting school the following September (he's August born so skipped a room to achieve this). He absolutely thrived in the preschool room, he learned how to make friends, sit properly, use the toilet independently, learned days of the week, months of the year, registration etc.They talked about school a lot and included school role play areas in the room, stories and uniforms they could wear to play in etc.

He's just started school this month and I feel like they prepared him so well for it, despite being one of the youngest he's settling in brilliantly, happily wearing his uniform (which is something we expected a battle with) and getting used to his new routine.

Lots of preparing for school can, and should be done by parents. Talking with and sharing books and rhymes with your child daily, encouraging independence in the bathroom, with eating etc. Building resilience, learning to take turns and share. Focusing on something for around 10 minutes, sometimes something they don't want to do. The letters and numbers thing school will teach them, bit if you want to, just practice counting, recognising rhythm, rhyme and alliteration. Many nurseries, including mine, have 2 year olds with 3 and 4s in one room and they def leave school ready. I wouldn't make any changes at this stage.

Mine was at a childminders and the other children there were younger than him - it was fine, she didn’t just have the same expectations of him at 3.5-4.5 as she did with the 2-3 year olds - they all follow the EYFS and continue their development whatever the age of the other ones.

I would have thought that they’d have to do the same at the nursery, whether or not they separate them out into a different room. And it’s not something you need to be doing intensively all day all the time at home - just start things like him putting his own coat on each day rather than you doing it for him, making sure he knows where things go and puts them away independently, working on shoes on and off etc.

I was involved in a church pre-school which prepared the kids really well for school. They took kids from 2 to nearly 5 and spent much of the time in one large hall, and the key is not where they are but what they are doing. If they say spent one hour a day doing specific things with the older children (circle time, listening, mark-making / tracing wiggly lines, counting, a bit of phonics) then that is plenty, provided the toys, books and equipment in the room include sufficient stuff aimed at the older ones. Having spent lots of time in the preschool, I saw that most resources were suitable for both but used differently. So they’d all be painting but youngest were just splashing colour and oldest were drawing recognisable shapes or faces. Or 2yo would “make soup” with random plastic food whilst older ones would choose the “right” plastic ingredients to make a “pizza”. The older ones naturally gravitated towards other older ones whilst also being protective of younger ones.

So if you’re otherwise happy with the nursery and settled there and trust the staff then stick with it. Also remember that reception is very play-based so preparation for school is more about independence in the toilet, dressing, etc plus sitting still, taking turns, listening, knowing how a book works (turn pages left to right) - not about turning up able to read, write and add up.