Pre school at a school or community nursery?

[beth35]

Bit confused, i found one lovely pre school amongst a lot of ones that were not to my taste dispite what ofstead said. Anyway thought my mind was made up and then went to my last one on the list and am confused.

Fisrt one is in a smallish room but has a really homely feel, i loved the staff and felt at home there.

Second one had great facilities but as was in a school felt more formal and although the teachers were friendly i was left unsure as to whether she needed this or not. I feel that facility wise she should go to the pre school but prefered the homely feel of the community one arrr!

Its so hard to tell what she will be like in a years time but unsure do they need a school environment or just somewhere nice to play?

Personal choice i know but am interested in opinions....

I would ( and have) gone for the warmly feel.

We went with the more play orientated one at first, then moved ds to the formal one when he got older to get him uup to speed for school. Most of the kids in the village do this so peer changes were not a problem.

Its really hard to know what they should be doing at the age of 3 and a half. I liked the warm one but the facilities and education in the other seemed better but then i think oh does she really need this as reception class at school will be like this and i do educate her at home.
So hard to know what pre school is for lol

I always thought I'd go for the small homely option every time as that's what I had as a child. However when faced with the choice recently we opted for the school pre-school, mainly because DD has been at a largeish day nursery up until now. She's not fazed by a formal environment as a result and I think (hope) she'll thrive at the pre-school. Plus she's desperate to get to school! They've also got really great facilities.

That was just our decision based on our child though, when it comes to childcare/education you've got to go with what you feel is right for your child (and I went to a village hall nursery which was fab, so please no-one shout at me!)

I think it really depends on the child, their age and previous experience. I'm already getting the feeling that DS may be very different!