Pre-school : Morning or Afternoon

[Wirlies]

DS3 is currently ante-preschool year at nursery in the afternoons. Of his group of friends from this year, all are staying on in the afternoons next year.

Would it be unreasonable of me to change him to mornings next September, and remove him from these friends.

He's sociable so won't struggle to make new friends (and we know a couple already from the mornings).

Routine-wise, I actually don't mind at all which he goes to - we're up and out for school anyway, so doesn't really impact me either way.

The reason I'd move him is because the morning sessions at our nursery seem to be calmer, more ordered and a bit more relaxed than the afternoons when everyone is a bit more tired and it can be quite chaotic.
The teachers obviously can't say that the morning sessions are 'better', but the hints I'm getting from them are that it is worth the move for the better atmosphere.

Any thoughts/ experiences ? I feel like I'm veering to mornings

My Daughter has 3 morning sessions an 2 afternoon sessions of pre-school per week (1 per day)
I have found she gets more from the morning sessions and is much happier after these sessions than the afternoon ones. It also means she has a nice calm afternoon at home instead of a manic morning.

Hi Wirlies I am trying to decide mornings or pms for my daughter. I just instinctively feel mornings are so much better. They are ready to go in the morning and I am sure that their brains are more open to learning etc. We have tricky decision to make, as it is a very good school the nursery is attached too but i think the afternoons are going to be tricky. Ofcourse it depends on the child i know.

Sorry meant to say we only have afternoon space in my preferred school nursery.

I wanted (and got) mornings for both of mine as it then left the whole afternoon free to do what you wanted. When dd was at school and ds at nursery it meant I could drop them both off in the morning at the same time. If it had been the afternoon place then I would have had to hang about 15/20 minutes to get ds from nursery after school finished as nursery got out later.

Speaking as a former nursery teacher I would go for the morning.

hi Panzee,hope you could help me.my daughter starts nursery in may.she has got the afternoon sessions,which i really dont want.i have to have a meeting with the head teacher to try and get her moved.is it any good saying that i want the morning because i want her in the get up and go routine,and as i dont drive if she was on the afternoons i would be unable to do anything,or do i have to make stuff up to make it sound like my daughter really needs the mornings.thanks for reading.

I would go for morning too, my DS attends afternoon nursery and I would agree with everything you have just said. My son is always tired and I feel he would get a lot more out of a morning session. Also, in our nursery mornings seem to get a better deal, they attend special events which seem to almost always happen in the morning. They also get their full session when school closes early for half terms etc. If the teacher has to attend a meeting it's always in the afternoon so they lose out on a teacher for the afternoon.

DD does two afternoons at preschool and it really cuts up the day. Lunch is a nightmare and I have to give her a sandwich in the car park as trying to give her breakfast at 11.30 doesn't work for either of us.

From September she'll change to 3 mornings and I think she'll be a lot better with that.