Apologies, I posted this in parenting and the realised their was a preschool section!
Apologies for the stupid questioning but I tend to be rather overly nervous of DD's feelings (and DH is so laid back he's therefore horizontal and useless 
)
DD is 2.6 and currently goes to playgroup in the next village two mornings a week. I had intended on keeping her there until she was eligible for the school nursery down the road from the playgroup, then to the school (school A) after that. That way she would be going up to the next stage with kids she knows and hopefully wouldn't find the transition too hard.
Last week the playgroup did a visit to the school nursery, and asked for parents to volunteer to escort the kids there as it's about a five minute walk. So I went, partly to be helpful and partly to see what the nursery was like. Unfortunately I was really disappointed in the nursery. There were a few issues that didn't sit well with me and I'm not sure how confident I am about sending DD there. However the school that it's attached too (schoo, A) is rated 'good' by ofsted, has very positive reviews by parents, and feeds into and 'outstanding' seconday (so she would get automatic priority for the secondary)
Sooo... What I've done is look at my more local school nursery. The nursery nurses seemed really nice, warm, welcoming, and the place is rated as 'outstanding' by OFSTED. They are also very flexible about how I would like to use DD's early years entitlement, and also provide lunch for free. However the Primary school that it feeds into (school B) isn't nearly as good as the first one. It's ok, not terrible, but primary teacher friends have strongly advised school A over school B as theirs a few issues with bullying and disruptiveness in the older years at school B.
So what I was thinking of doing was letting DD stay at playgroup until January when she recieves her early years funding, then putting her in nursery B, then when it comes to applying for schools, applying for school A.
Does that make sense? She has a reasonable chance at getting into both nurseries and both schools, we live close to both and it's not a hugely over populated area. But I worry that this involves a lot of change for her. DH thinks that it wont be a problem, as she'll have almost two years at the nursery before she goes to school, and she'll be almost five when she starts school.
Does this sound like too much change for such a small child, being in playgroup, then having to make new friends at nursery, then going to school where admittedly their will be some kids from playgroup but she may not remember them and they will obviously have firmer friendships established between themselves as they've all been to the nursery that DD hasn't.
Or am I overthinking this?
Thank you for getting this far! Any thoughts would be really appreciated!