Scottish Nursery rules - anyone able to help?

[ginmakesitallok]

I will call the school on Monday - but thought I'd try on here too. DD2 will be 3 in October. Waiting to hear if she's got a place in local school nursery, shoult find out in next week or 2, but she won't start until January. DMIL has sorted out a part-time place for her 3 days a week in a different nursery. In the letter I got from them it said this would be paid for by Local authority. If we take up this place (from when school go back in October) will she lose her place at the school nursery? Can we just keep her name on waiting list for school nursery, send her to other place mean-time and then take up school place in January? (we'd obviously not be sending her to 2 places at once). Thanks to anyone who can help.

Just to clarify: you only get a funded place from the term after they turn 3. So the part-time place you've got from October you'll be paying for yourself.

The waiting list for the school nursery should be separate and unless you ask to be taken off it (and keep ringing the school anyway, just to see), your dd's place should be fine to start in January.

Caveat: ds is now 12, so my info might be out of date!

DD is 11, so also out of date info!, but she got a nursery place from the term she turned three. Her birthday is 28th August and she started nursery mid August when the schools went back.

Prettybird is correct. Funding only applies for the term after they turn 3. Something else to note is that even once the funding kicks in, it will not correlate to the equivalent number of hours in a private nursery. We paid about £320 per month for a 2 day per week place in a private nursery and then received back a cheque every term to cover part of the fees. If I recall it was worth the equivalent of £1000 per year so we were still paying over £2.5k for a two day a week place.

Ds went to nursery from just before he turned 4: mainly partly because I didn't get my act together and because he was very happy at the childminder (who didn't do pick-ups) so part-time at the council nursery would have been difficult to manage until dh began working from home and could pick him up himself and drop him off at the childminder.

So by the time I rang up, the earliest I could get him in was the August before he turned 4 (September birthday) - but as it happens, he only missed at most a term's worth because of the nursery workers' strike.

Netto - I think the cutoff for funding (in Glasgow anyway) is the end of August. If your child is born between September and Xmas then you have to wait until January.

I'm in Argyll & Bute.
It might be different now, but DD started a couple of weeks before she turned three, all funded at a school nursery.

I remember that strike, my next door neighbour at the time had her twins home for ages because of it.

Ds' birthday meant that he should have started in January. Iirc, the strike started in Feb and finished in May so he only missed out on about 2 months - plus I still had my full child care arrangements in place.

Thanks Pretty bird - reassuring but I'll double check with the school. I was surprised that letter from other nursery said her place would be funded straight away - odd because they haven't even seen her birth cert yet. thanks for the helpful replies!

in our local authority (N Lanarkshire) they get a funded place from the day after they turn 3 if their birthday is between the 1st September and last date in February. If their birthday is between 1st March and 31st August they start in the August term.

The neighbouring authority (S. Lanarkshire) you still have to wait until the term after you turn 3 before you get funding.

Check your local council website to see what the cut off dates are for your particular area.