local preschool vs nursery school?

[redstripeyelephant]

DD is at a local preschool and absolutely loves it. It's nothing flash, run in a church hall, and takes kids age 2-4. They have a lot of different child-led activities every day, the staff are very warm and caring, the kids call them by their first names and it is just a lovely relaxed, informal setting.

I just went to visit the nursery class attached to the local school. It seems quite different, much more like school. They have their own peg, own tray, a mixture of child-led and adult-led activities. For example, they have some free play but there are also activities that every child must sit down and do, such as learning letter sounds, tracing letters etc. The staff are all referred to as 'Mrs xx'.

DD can either stay where she is for her nursery year next year, or go to the nursery school. I am completely in two minds! On the one hand she is so happy where she is and I'm not sure she needs such a structured setting, surely there will be time for that when she starts school? But on the other hand, perhaps by then she will be ready for something more, and it will prepare her better for school. I also do like the thought of her being just with kids of her own age group, as the preschool does tend to have a lot of younger kids and not so many older ones.

She won't start nursery school til January anyway and it is a very over-subscribed primary school so chances are she may not even get into the school. So I don't know if it's worth moving her for 2 terms just to move her to a different school anyway...

I think you have already answered your own q! 2 terms isn't long. Just think how confident she will be by being the oldest at nursery. She wont lag behind academically. They only learn thru play in reception anyway.
Unless every other child she will be in school with makes the switch, leave her be.

Having my second child now in our village pre-school I am so glad that being rural schools don't have nursery's attached.
School nurserys give very little in the way of flexibility, you are assigned mornings or afternoons often with no say in the matter and they must go the five days a week, with our village pre-school you can choose what suits you and your child best, they are open on Monday mornings and then all day Tuesday through to Thursday (Friday they are not open, they run out of the village hall and have to fit around other users), My dd when at pre-school was/is the type of child that needed something doing everyday so she went three mornings and one full day (before funding she did 2 mornings) and then toddler group on Friday, my ds is different, more of a home body, gets more tired so right now as his funding doesn't start util Easter he does 3 mornings, staying for the lunch hour one day and has Tuesdays off, works very well for him, after Easter he will do one morning and two full days, you can't have this flexibility with a school nursery.
Another aspect is that with a pre-school you don't normally have to wait for the start of the new academic year after your child turns three to start and most start from either 2.5 years or in our case 2.9 years with you paying fees until the term after 3rd birthday.
Another point for me is uniform, our pre-school like many has an optional uniform consisting of just a logo polo shirt and sweat shirt however this is not compulsory, my children have always loved wearing their pre-school tops but I would hate to have to put them in the almost full school uniform most school nursery's seem to require.
My final point on what you describe is the school nursery does not seem to be following the EYFS learning through play curriculum, it should be play and child lead, at pre-school age they shouldn't be doing formal learning like you discribe, at our pre-school they help them learn to recognise their name, as they go through their time there they will learn to write there name (not all children can do that very well on starting school but just weeks into school they steak ahead with it), they will do small key group work with number games but it is all active play based stuff.
Having a peg and a tray don't really say much, our pre-school has those, helps the children recognise their names and keeps their things together.
As you can see I am very pro pre-school and not against school nurserys as such but I guess just been spoilt by our much loved (rated outstanding but ofsted stuff is subjective just like everything else) pre-school.
I would try not to move my child around any more then absolutely necessary so I would probably see if I had a realistic chance of getting into the school attached to the nursery and if it was doubtful I would keep my dc where they are as long as I was happy with the setting.

I am a bit worried about my 14 months old son. He has been with the childminder for 7 months now, he seemed happy at the beginning, but in the last 2 months he cries a lot, he is very clingey with her,only wants to sit on her lap and cries a lot when I leave him there in the morning. Besides he has serious problems sleeping at her house. I don't know what to do. Do you think it's time for him to go to a nursery?

I'm also very pro community pre-schools. I love the flexibility of it - just the fact if I want to take him out for the day there's no pressure to attend EVERY single session. Pre-school has an optional sweatshirt, which about half of the children wear sometimes (it varies). The others come in with whatever they want to.

The more I hear about pre-schools attached to school, the more I don't like it as a concept. Uniform rules and compulsory attendance at 3 doesn't sit well with me.

DD went to the same pre-school and is having a great time at school.

I can't abide school nursery classes myself - so inflexible, and so 'school-like'. We send our kids to school early enough in this country as it is.

I'm like roadkillbunny. My DS1 is now at school and I had contemplated sending DS2 to the nursery there next year. However, he is very happy at his village playgroup. Even though it's a drive away rather than the walk to DS1's school I've decided to keep him at playgroup as it's so much more flexible than nursery and I'm pretty sure he'll settle into school when the time comes.

Also the funding issue came into it, even with the cost of petrol to go to playgroup, it'll be cheaper than him going to school and us paying for an additional session a week (in the last couple of terms before Reception) so he can get used to doing a full day and paying for lunch a couple of times a week. With the fifteen hours of funding available with 2 1/2 hour sessions, DS2 can have five sessions and two lunches all included in the funding.

I'm glad I did the thinking exercise, but happy with my conclusion!

I'm having the same dilemma. DS is very happy at a lovely preschool/playgroup and I don't know whether to keep him there for another year or move him to nursery school. The nursery is attached to the primary school where he has a good chance of ending up (I assume as it's literally just behind our house and much closer than other schools).

My worry, if I keep him at preschool, is that he will start reception not knowing anyone and all the kids who've been at the nursery will already have made friends. Also he's a November baby, so will be 4.8 when he finishes his nursery year. I'm worried he'll be much older than anyone else at preschool or will have made good friends that he'll then have to leave, as most children at his preschool go to other primarys.

I'm secretly hoping that he won't be offered a place at the nusery and then I can keep him at the preschool without giving it any thought.

Sorry for the ramble. It's so hard to know what to do for the best.

Bumspoon; I was in a similar position with my DS1. We had hoped he was going to go to the village school next door to playgroup and it was too late to change by the time we knew he wasn't going there - and I also didn't want to.

I was concerned about how he'd settle in to the new school and how he'd get on, but I needn't have worried.

There were a few others who hadn't been to the nursery but had been in full time nurseries, with childminders, or who had just moved into the area and they just mucked in and settled down pretty well. In fact at his first parents' evening last November his teacher commented about how well he'd settled in and you wouldn't have known he hadn't been to the nursery.

My DS1 is also a November birthday and I think that he was mature enough to deal with it. He still misses his best friend from playgroup but we try to see him in the holidays and he is now making new friendships at school.

Do what your gut tells you. My gut told me to keep him at playgroup and it was absolutely the right choice.

Thanks Pigeon. It's good to know that your DS settled well. I think they probably are better able to cope with change when they're nearer 5 and understand more about what's going on.

I shall see what offers come in May and consult my gut .

Also we read Janet and Allan Ahlberg's book 'Starting School' fairly regularly from about May until he started in September (there were others as well, but this is the one he liked the most) which did help him prepare.

But actually, school and nursery is not dissimilar to playgroup as they all have to follow the EYFS and it's just a different set of children to mix with.

Does your playgroup have a 'rising 5' session? We have certainly found that this session (once a week) has helped prepare the older ones for school, no matter where they were going - some to the village school, but then also to a wide range round the area - and having spoken to parents about how their DC are getting on who were there last year, they all seem to have settled. It also made them feel grown up at playgroup and able to focus more on age appropriate things.

They don't have a specific session for the older ones, as it seems to be the norm round here to go onto nursery so I don't know if they even have any rising fives. They do split the children into older and younger groups for certain activities though.

Oh, I'm back to my normal name. Couldn't get on with my namechange :)

thanks everyone, didn't realise I'd had any replies!

Thanks for your replies, it confirms what my gut is telling me really. It's just that I know several people who are moving from the preschool to school nursery as they say the preschool doesn't offer enough 'structure' for the 3-4 year olds. But my gut reaction on seeing the school nursery was that it is way too much 'structure' for that age group!

Also at the preschool she can do 2.5 days, which suits me much better as I'll be able to have quality time with DD2 on the days DD1 is in preschool, but also still have 2 full days a week to go on day trips out to the zoo or museums.

My only worry is that if she (hopefully) gets into rhe school she won't know anyone, or won't be as well prepared for it as kids who have been to the school nursery. But then I guess as PigeonPie says there will be other kids who have been at private nurseries etc so she won't be the only one...

Didn't think I'd be stressing about education this early, she's not even 3!