A lot of areas only offer 1/2 days of pre-school or Nursery now anyway.
It's totally up to you what you want him to do.
Also, be aware that different settings can call themselves by the same name and offer different things, and sometimes the same thing can be called different things, so don't be confused into thinking 'pre-school' means one thing, and Nursery another - it isn't that straightforward.
All children should get 15hours of funded place, from the term after their 3rd birthday, so in your case, after Christmas once he turns 3 This can be used in a day nursery or a school's nursery class, or a play group, or a 'pre-school', or an independent nursery or a state stand alone nursery school.
People have different preferences as to which they choose.
Generally - a school Nursery class or a stand alone nursery school will be led by a qualified teacher but if there's a teacher in charge, then the ratios drop to 1:13
Usually (you do get exceptions) staff in PVIs (Private, voluntary and Independent) tend to be less qualified, but the ratio is higher 1:8 in the Pre-school rooms.
Some Nurseries insist on all dc doing either 5 mornings or 5 afternoons. Some insist on it being 2.5 days, others let you choose.
If you wanted, you can use the hours at 2 different settings.
You can of course pay for more time if you want/need to.
You can of course not use the free hours at all.
As insancerre says - all of the providers should be following the same curriculum (EYFS), but you will find individual settings to be very different in their approaches, and that's not linked to which sort of setting it is.