My child's been offered a fulltime school nursery place - but i only want 4 days - school are refusing. Do i have any rights?

[Bunjababy]

Can anyone help - my daughter has been offered a full time nursery school place (the only option i was told was available) However, given she is youngest in the year i am becoming increasingly anxious and wish to home school her 1 day. School do not agree with my plan and have hinted at withdrawing the place if i do not use all the days.

Can school do this? do school not have a responsiblity to work flexibly with parents around home educatin combined with school.

Thanks

How old is your DD? How many hours of school a week will this be for?

i think their issue will be funding. they can't offer 1 day a week to anyone else. if you set in stone 4 days/week then they can't claim for 5.

so just go for 5
then keep her home 1 day.
vary it according to what is going on, there are some things you won't want her to miss.

I would think if it is private then you don't have any choice - they run it how they want - if they want 5 day attendance, then that's their rule (I think).

Agree with amidaiwish - you really don't have to worry about attendance at nursery, you can keep her home on the days you have something more fun educational to offer her than school!

Nursery as in 3 hours a day?

You can keep her home one day, like the other posters have said. However, if you are planning to send her to the school when she starts formal education you may get off on the wrong foot by doing this.

She doesn't have to be in school ( or any type of education ) until she is 5 anyway.

School do not have to work with you with regard to home education, some schools will offer flexi schooling but it is not required of them officially.

DD2 was in nursery last year. before i accepted the place i "asked" if she could do 3 days/week as i wanted to keep her in her private 8am-4pm nursery 2 days/week so i could get some work done! (school nursery is 8.50-11.45)
the answer was a categorical NO. so i got a childminder to collect her 2 days/week.

Anyway, from my experience last year many other mums only sent their children 3 or 4 days/week, keeping them at home 1 or 2 days/week on a regular basis for a variety of reasons: wanting to spend time with them, too young, miss them, they were tired, mum fed up of doing the school run every day etc...

i just approached it the wrong way.

Great answers thank you

The place is 9 - 3 x 5 days

I originally did plan to just keep her off from time to time but they have already given me a stern talking to about attendance! Unbelievable - daughter is just 3!
As someone said, don't want to get off on wrong foot since i wish for her to attend the school later.
It sounds like i really don't have much power in the situation and going into the school for a meeting is an even more disempowering experience. Funny how in work i can be assertive but within school environment i become like a child again!

ok so if it is 9-3 that is not govt funded, so my comments probably aren't relevant...

School / sure-start nurseries seem to be totally inflexible on this, which is what puts me off them I'm afraid .

You say this is "the only option I was told was available", but have you looked around at local private pre-schools? You can claim the nursery grant at most places, which should give you up to 15 hours a week free, and flexibility over when you use it, and whether you use all of it.

If you want more flexibility you'll need to use the vouchers and go to a private nursery. State school cannot resource children doing hours to suit parents/child. It's worth getting used to it - they are institutions that you have to bend round rather than the other way, you'll just end up banging heads continually and getting nowhere.