June 2008: New Year, new thread, new names, new words, new goals, but no resolutions!

[abdnhikinginawinterwonderland]

New thread since the last one's at 997 posts...

Yes I must go to bed too - I am just about to get embroiled in a CC argument on another thread and it is far too late for that!

Just to join the preschool chat - I hadn't given it any thought at all. S is in a nursery which is a partner provider which means it can offer the funded preschool provision so when he's 3 the nursery fees will come down a bit . I woulnt worry about ofsted reports too much - we looked at a nursery that had excellent inspection reports but when I visited the place left me cold. If S wasn't already in nursery for childcare purposes I'd definitely want to send him to the preschool attached to the primary he'll be going to so hopefully he could start making firiends.

You can send your DC to any pre-school here but they really emphasise that it has no bearing on what primary they go to i.e there's no point sending your dc to an out of catchment preschool in the hope that it'll help them get into that primary.

deb today is DH's birthday too - he's taken the day off and we're looking forward to a family day.

No real help for the nursery talk here as Scotland's different (we start in government funded nursery the semester after they turn three, whether at a school nursery or a playgroup. Most don't accept children until they are that age. You can also do your nursery at the private full-day nursery your child is already in, but I don't think they normally accept children for less than 1/2 days (5 hours) so you do always need to pay something). Things to look for if it's just a short session are freedom of choice for the kids, experienced teachers/staff (makes a huge difference IMO, DS1's staff have 6 grown kids between the two of them and nothing gets by them at all), and lots of outside space).

Oh Sponge how awful about Alex! I hope you get the full story and your DH just got it a bit mixed up. Luke uses a fork and spoon (which he actually really learned to do from coying the others at nursery)but he still eats with his fingers too all the time!

Thanks for the POAS comments - I need to be much stronger about it!

Just popping in to say hello and wave to you all. Bit busy chez puree and expecting the Inlaws for the entire weekend which is doing my hormone-addled brain no end of good...NOT. Annabel is doing well though and I finally seem to have the feeding thing sussed (famopus last words.) Lovely to see Amber yesterday. You obviously caved after you left me if you did a test. I second Essie [picks up megaphone]: Step away from the tests.

[Returns to lurky status]

PS Sponge- lovely house!!

All this pre-school talk is really interesting! Here, all three things are completely separate. So a child will go to pre-school, then move location to a separate nursery, then often move location again to a primary school (Neenz many primaries don't have nurseries attached and J will have to move to a different primary as ours doesn't. Also, a nursery place makes no difference to primary applications. Many children at our nursery applied for, but didn't get into the attached ((and excellent)) school.)

Time wise, the system works like this:

• pre-school - normally this starts around 2.5 and lasts until nursery. Places are funded the term after child turns 3. For our children, that will be the Sept 2011 term.

nursery - it depends on how many intakes the nursery has as to when a child begins. Every nursery local to us has 2 intakes, Sept and Jan. J will start nursery Jan 2012 then (so will only get ONE* term funded at pre-school before he moves to nursery. We will have to pay for him to go a couple of mornings a week for the two terms before this as it would be cruel to settle him in for one term and then move him)

*primary - again, this depends on the number of intakes, but J will start in Jan 2013.

We will have to apply for nursery places this autumn, and then apply for primary places the following year. The worse bit locally is the move from nursery to primary. Lots of people get into our local excellent nursery and then assume they will get into the attached school. Unfortunately though, the nursery takes 60 kids (30 am, 30 pm) but the school only takes 30, and of these 18 places are reserved for CofE applicants and then siblings are allocated next. The year my daughter went to nursery there, all the places were filled by CofE and siblings. It was awful as all the mums were at nusery crying when they discovered they hadn't got places in the school.

Does that all make sense? It does seem very over-complicated to me.

sybil, the school place allocation system is dreadful, I completely agree. And alot of parents do assume that they will queue jump if they get their child in the right pre-school. It's so sad. And don't even get me started on state funded faith schools .

Back in my day you went to your local school and that was it. Much easier for everyone to understand and none of this stress about places. Catchments were mixed so you ended up (generally) with a good mix of kids at the school and (generally) it worked pretty well. Now, if you want a good school, you pay (either in house prices or private ed) or pray. It sucks .

spider, your ofsted links were for childminders! Will try and find the reports though.

Nursery situation now sorted - update on other thread.

puree, good to hear you're well and that feeding is sorted .

Neenz, which thread?

That's beautifully explained, Sybil, thanks.
Nursery - is that different to the nursery like the one Iestyn goes to (and we pay for)?

I think it doesn't quite work for me because I live in Wales. (Looks hopefully for someone to confirm that.) Realistically there's no choice of school here (primary or secondary) except the private ones which are a worse option here. (Only better if you want to avoid your child being Welsh/English bilingual. You have to pay to opt out of them learning Welsh well and getting the gift of bilingualism freely and swiftly. People do this. I have strong views as you can guess...)

I don't have to apply either as far as I know. The village primary is a church school but not in the English way, IYKWIM.

Essie, I would use the term pre-school where sybil has used nursery - just to confuse things! Can't remember where sybil lives but round here pre-school is what you start in 2012. It's all v .

Do no private schools in Wales teach Welsh then?

Abdn - can you split your funded place between two providers do you know? S goes to private day nursery 3 days a week so would get 3 sessions of his funded place there but I'm wondering if he could have his two other sessions (on his non-nursery days) at the local school pre-school? Am I right in that it's five sessions? Not sure if it's 2 or 3 hours per day though?

DGT You can split the vouchers between tw setting. You get 3 hours per day, days per week on a termly basis.

Where I live children can stay at preschool either until they start nursery which is attached to a school or until they start reception at school. We have to apply for school nurseries via the LEA I think in September but preschools are dealt with directly and you can put your name down when you like.

Really not sure what to do with DS as I didn't want to have to pay for preschool but if I wait until he is funded then he only gets one term before starting school nursery. I don't want him to stay at preschool until he starts reception as I love the idea of all of mine being in the same school for a year, well two terms as DS will be in the Jan intake.
I wouldn't worry too much about pfreindships at such a young age as reception children makes friends so easily.

essie you will have to apply in the sense of register though I think (we do here, we're guaranteed a place since we're within catchment but they still have to know we exist...). Look for posters up in the post office etc. or ask a HV.

DGT no you can't split it between providers, at least not in Aberdeen or Aberdeenshire. (going - we're all set up differently in Scotland) You can have up to five sessions and you can do a maximum of two sessions a day (with an hour in between). So for people who work 2.5 days a week, it's ideal and for you it's actually okay - S will get five sessions, three in the morning and two in the afternoon, funded. It'll be a big financial help! (But only for 39 weeks of the year). But if you worked two days a week and had them at a private nursery, you need them to either do only four sessions there (or drop them off at nursery for a few hours on another day) or pay for that in full, and then you'd get three sessions at the local school-associated one or a playgroup. A few mums I know who work part time are paying the nursery cost in full because they are concerned that their child needs to make friends with the local kids before starting in P1. (Personally, I wouldn't be concerned but my kids are relatively outgoing). And currently it's 2.5 hours a day but I think it's increasing to 3 hours. This sounds way more confusing written down than in my head...

That all makes sense abdn thank you! I'm sure we'll just let S have his 5 sessions in nursery. DH and I both work 4 days so unless that changes it'll probably be the easiest option!

[waves] [scurries away to study more]

I didn't go back to that sleep thread Sponge, so not sure what happened after I left! It was the one about using a sleep trouble shooter - some uppity Ap-er came on saying 'so you know CC is barbaric and cruel and can't bring yourslef to do it yourself, but you would pay someone else to do it?' I thought I am not rising to that!

It is a disgrace that schools in some areas are so rubbish unless they are private or church schools.

The nursery the DTs will go to is attached to the school, and I know they will get into the school because we live across the road from it and it is our church's own school, so I'm not sure how we could not get in really . But it is not necessarily considered the 'best' school in the area. There is an RC primary about a mile away which apparently got 100% in all its SATs, one of only five primaries in the country to achieve that. But I really don't think the DTs would do any better there than at our local school, all the schools here are good, although that doesn't stop the stressful talk at playgroup about which school you want your kids to go to. That's what I mean about hysterical, all the schools here are bloody great so why stress yourself (and me) out

I've started bleeding. I didn't even get to do the test

Amber

Oh Amber I am so very sorry.

Really sorry Amber - be good to yourself xx

Oh Amber that is so shit. But are you sure it is not something else eg implantation bleed? My SIL had IUI and started bleeding at around test time - well she thought she wasn't pg but she was. She bled massively for the whole of the first trimester, but has a gorgeous DS to show for it. Isn't it unusual to start bleeding so soon if it is just the lining of the womb shedding? Fingers crossed for you I really hope it is not what you think xxx

So sorry Amber, sending lots of hugs. Have a glass of wine and a cuddle tonight...

Amber x

Amber- am so sorry

I'm so sorry Amber

Amber So sorry