2 full days at playschool or 5 half days at school nursery, pros and cons??

[caughtupintheratrace]

Hi All,

Just after a bit of advice, my DS turns 3 in June. At the moment he is at playschool for 2 mornings, he should be offered a place for the school nursery from Sept.

I just don't know what to do....... I just feel he is too young to be away from me every morning or afternoon, seems too much too young, and i will be up and down the school as my DD is there.
There is the option at playschool to send him all day with a packed lunch so thought if i done this i would still get to spend 3 days with him.

Anyway from the garbled post you can probably tell im confused.

My real questions are
1 - will he benefit from meeting the children he will go to school with before reception?
2 - there are only 3 staff in the school nursery for around 30 3 year olds, is this enough?

This has all obviously been impacted with the change of intakes

1. Yes probably. It will probably make the first few weeks at school easier as he'll know other children. But there will be children who don't know anyone else, and if he goes to the school your DD goes to then he'll already know lots about the school.

1. Yes for a school nursery assuming that there is a qualified teacher in charge. Whether this really is enough depends on how the staff are used and the space the nursery has. 3 member of staff in a small classroom, then probably fine. 3 members of staff in a large classroom with lots of outdoor space that wasn't visible from the classroom would worry me a bit more.

1 - yes he will, he will already have friends, will make it very easy for him to settle in to the learning side of school, when he already knows children
2 - that is a good child to staff ratio.

I would send him every morning that way you would still have from 12:00 to do things with him/take him to places.

Personally I found 8.45, 11.46 and 3.20 school runs very, very, very tedious. not to mention expensive as it comes to 18 miles a day.
Therefore, DD2 did 3 days school nursery and one full 9-5.45 day at a lovely private nursery.

She'd been since she was 1 and it saved my sanity. Even as a SAHM I found one day to go to the dentists, shop etc invaluable.

I agree, you should see if you can split the funding (you are allowed to do this but it seems many pre-schools and nurseries get around it in various ways).

I am in a slightly different situation, my DS goes to a pre-school 3 full days a week (9-3) as I work. He goes 1 full day to the pre-school linked to the school he will start in September as I wanted him to get to know a few children to make the transition easier for him.

If I didn't work I would prefer for him to do maybe 2 or 3 full days and then we get the time together all day on the other days rather than just 3 hours per day.