DD (3) has been at a lovely preschool since January. She struggled to settle in (crying every morning and begging me not to go), but now seems fairly happy. She likes the adults, especially her key person - and they have a really good ratio of adults/children.
She doesn't seem to have specific friends (she does occasionally mention a name, but when I ask whether she plays with that child she says no) and preschool have said she doesn't really join play with other children and prefers to be with the adults. I think this is a maturity and social skills issue (which we are working on).
She's been offered a place from September at a really nice school nursery. However, she won't get into Reception at that school since we're not close enough (they have twice as many nursery as Reception places). I don't think the nursery at our catchment school is right for her: it's a very busy, noisy environment (3 form entry all together) and she struggles with that.
I think that it might help her to be in a school type environment for a year before Reception, to make Reception less of a shock, so I'm thinking of accepting the school nursery place we've been offered.
But how much does it affect children to change multiple times? She'd be moving this September after 2 terms at her first place, then again the following September to start Reception.
She isn't a child who finds change easy. On the other hand, I actually suspect that she would find the slightly more structured environment of a school nursery easier than complete freeflow where she's aware of her social struggle (I'm not projecting here - she said from the start that she didn't like preschool because she had no friends). She does really need to learn those social skills, and whichever environment helps her most with that is probably best.