Private nursery or school setting

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I'd like some thoughts on moving my DS from his private nursery setting into the nursery school class of the primary school he is likely to attend in 2016.

As far as I can see, the main points in favour are:

1. Hours are better. He currently does 5 morning sessions (7.30-1) at nursery, but we often don't get to nursery until 8.30, sometimes later. At school nursery, he will go from 8.55-1.30 as standard with an afternoon club that can be booked ad-hoc until 3pm for £5 per day.

2. Cheaper (?). I am unclear about whether it would actually be cheaper in the long-run. At nursery we pay for every single session that he does as standard every week of the year except for shut-down at Christmas. So for holidays etc, we pay whilst away. At nursery, it is school terms only & afternoon club is payg anyway. I suspect that the free 15hrs won't go very far at our current nursery, especially as it would cover less than 3 sessions leaving us with approx 2.4 sessions to cover at £27 per session and it would be for 51 weeks of the year & we'd have to cover the other 2.6 sessions as well for 13 weeks of the year. My hunch is that paying for some weeks/days of holiday club as needed will be cheaper in the long run.

3. Most important: school readiness. Our current nursery has lovely staff, but there is a fair bit of turnover. It's quite small, so when they have staff issues, they seem to manage by merging pre-school with the 2-3 class. Recently, this has been good; my tall 2.9 has enjoyed mixing with the older kids. He isn't physically intimidated as he is taller than some of the younger 3yo and his language has come on leaps & bounds. It does concern me that when he is about to go into reception, he will most likely have spent the summer with kids as young as 24 months on a daily basis.

So, I'd be really interested to hear the thoughts of the more experienced amongst you, or who are considering similar options yourselves.

Thanks!

Could you link to that Rafa? I also work in a EYFS setting and haven't seen this in the statutory framework for nursery classes. I understood the rules for school nursery classes are: at least one school teacher, at least one other level 3 qualified person, and a 1:13 ratio.

I prefer preschools and I want to spend my holidays with my kids. Private preschools are good and they seem to be able to contribute more towards bettering the future of my child.

I would be very surprised if a school nursery only provided 'continuous provision' and would let a child spend the whole session going on a slide/riding a bike/using a computer.

Was that in reply to me greeneggs? The preschool don't, it's the private nursery. Although I think the computers are only used in activities, the kids can't just use them all day whenever they want. This is what they said anyway.

Hi Lady Catherine, yes it was in response to the playing on the slide all day long bit. I thought you were talking about a school nursery though. I have no idea about private nurseries but I would find it a bit worrying if they were just left to do the same activity all day every day without a bit of prompting. I have heard of some private nurseries doing set activities like 'from 10 to 10.30 the blue group children sit at this table and do this activity then they all go and do that then they all go and do so and so. I'm not so keen on the sound of this either!

No, I don't fancy set activities all session either. I suppose they probably do stuff like get them to do a group sing song, and they all eat at a set time.

I work in a school nursery and the ratio is 1:13 for level 3 staff if there is a teacher in the room. I have level 6 and can also have 1:13 but if I am working with my Level 3 colleague she can only have 1:8. It's a bit confusing!

School nursery every time, no contest. The emphasis in school is education whereas in private nurseries its childcare. The Ofsted inspection framework has different expectations of the two and the bar is lower for private nurseries. State nurseries have better qualified staff in general and are better resourced as the emphasis is not on keeping costs low and profits high.

Lucy you are so wrong
The inspections are the same and graded the same way
Private nurseries obviously need to make a profit to stay viable. But its certainly not at the detriment of the children
I manage a private nursery and I am offenders d by your suggestion that I put the money before the children
The needs of the children always come first and there should be no education/ care divide.

This is just my opinion but I think children should spend at least a little while in the school nursery if possible.

Like people have said before, they all move up to reception together. It also gives them a chance to get to used to the school. In my DDs nursery, the reception teacher often comes into the classroom so the children are all used to her. The nursery is really involved in the main school. Nursery class will often sit in on assemblies and school plays.

Ratios might be better in private nursery but once they go into reception, it will just be a teacher plus a ta with 30 kids.

I'm not wrong at all. Nursery classes within a state school are inspected as part of the school and under their framework. From Sept 2015 this will change and all settings will be inspected in the same way.

With regards to resources, we all know that people are the most valuable resource in any education setting. Could you honestly say that your nursery could afford to put a qualified teacher in every class or room? Your ratios might be more favourable, but do your staff have to undertake additional duties? When my DS was in a private nursery, staff had to do cleaning and serving meals and the clearing up after etc. They worked very hard and loved the children but had too much to do! Now he is in a school nursery, there is an army of help to do these duties- cleaners and mealtime supervisors etc. That frees up more time to be with the chn, prepare activities, assess them etc.

I work for an LEA and visit many settings as part of my role. Your particular nursery might be great, but on the whole, state provision is better.

I agree with Lucy. Our teachers have a raft of lunchtime helpers etc who do all the non teaching stuff - so activities are very well planned. What looks like free play is often a well thought out activity with specific learning in mind. In all the private nurseries near us ratios are lower but staff spend a lot of time doing non learning / teaching stuff

I did actually wonder about that Alnwick. It seems like the transition in September 2015 would be bigger if she goes to preschool, but less of a jump in 2016. The idea of getting used to the school in advance is quite attractive. There are quite a few DC who start the reception not having gone to the school nursery, but would be nice to know the way to the cafeteria and that type of thing.

Actually leaning towards the private nursery now though, because I've found out they still have one staff member at the preschool who was effing useless when I was there 26 years ago (ironically he now has degrees!) and has by all accounts got worse, and just can't take the risk of him being DDs key worker.

OP I would do the one that suits you and makes your child happy now. Dd1 went to a tiny private nursery and was one of the most confident ones starting school. In fact she got exceeding for that eyfs box. Dd2 will do the same, reception is still play based and is meant to settle them into school, I dont really understand the rationale for needing 2 years to do that. I work though so I didn't really have a choice. Also some nurseries do offer term time contracts, it's really variable.