My DD is a September-born child and will be 3 next month. She currently goes to nursery 4 days a week, and has been at her current one since she was 18 months old. She loves it there and has lots of friends.
I've just found out that I'm expecting again and my new LO will be here sometime next March, which will mean I'll be on mat leave from Feb/Mar to the end of the year.
DD will start to qualify for pre-school vouchers from January, which means that we can continue to send her to her current nursery for some free sessions while I'm on mat leave (we wouldn't be able to afford to otherwise). This is great news for us because it means I can have a bit of time on my own with the baby, and she won't get out of the habit of going to nursery in the run-up to 'big school'.
My dilemma is what to do next September. I have two options:
a) Continue to send her to her current nursery. She really enjoys it, and I can just increase her hours when I'm ready to go back to work (and get 10% discount on the baby 
; or
b) Start to send her to pre-school attached to the primary we hope to send her to. It will be a bit more structured and will prepare her better for starting school full time.
One the one hand, I don't want her life to be too disrupted by the baby and keeping in touch with her friends and carers at nursery will help to ease the transition.
On the other, she'll HAVE to leave in August 2014 anyway, and will then go straight to 'big school'. She'll be one of the eldest in the nursery and might have got bored by what it has to offer.
I'm going to have to arrange childcare for evenings/weekends anyway when she starts school, so maybe I should find a childminder to collect her from pre-school when I go back to work in January 2014 (and who can take the baby for me) rather than having to arrange this in September (potentially disrupting the baby if I've settled them into nursery by then).
If I wasn't going to be on mat leave, then we would just leave her at her current nursery until school, but now we've got the opportunity, I'm wondering if we can do something better for her. Also, I'll be home to support her when she starts pre-school, making the transition to primary a bit easier - rather than out at work all day when she starts primary full time.
Sorry for the long post but keen to hear from other parents of September-borns who've had to choose between two options.