Pre-school - what is important ?

[Wheelybug]

Now I know I am thinking too much about which pre-school to send dd to but just wondered if other people could share their thoughts on what was important to them and why ?

I have 2/3 choices really.

1. Private pre-school, formalish and expensive
2. A 'church hall type' pre-school, cheap as chips (relatively) but not as formal and quite tatty
3. going to number 2 for two or three terms and then changing to one that is somewhere in between 1) and 2).

I have dd's name down for 1) but am doubting my decision. Basically I can't decide whether the formalness is important or not. I think in the main I think formal education at 2.5 (even if done in a fun way) is not necessary and she'd prefer to just go with her friends. However, I then panic that I am not doing the best for her.

As I say, I know I am thinking about this far far too much and I know no one can make this decision for us but just wondered how other people decided.

Thanks....

Hello!

I am sending DS to nursery from 2 and a bit for 3 afternoons (from April)
There was far too much choice so I've gone for a montessori
But I'm hoping to change to a different nursery closer to home from Sept - still need to look round those first

Have you been to visit them all?

Oops failed to answer your qu
I guess for me Montessori and location are key

I would think that social skills are far more important than the alphabet at this age. I sent ds to the one with the messiest activities!

warm, cuddly, friendly - whichever one you think is best at that

Echo Foxy's post. Also, tatty and warm is better than smart with high staff turnover, IMO.

thanks everyone. I KNOW I am worrying too much about it thats the silly thing.

I think my worries stem from the fact very good friends of ours are the only ones I know who have got this far yet and their dd goes to a formal private nursery so I assumed all the way along this was the done thing (although they don't live particularly local).

I have been to visit 1) and 2) and am going to arrange a visit for 3). I have also visited another one. I visted 1) though a year ago because I knew I had to get her name down early. I think I need to go and revisit 1) and also look at 3) and then just close my eyes and pick one . I visited 2) today and actually felt very positive about it based on nothing more than gut feeling.

SIgh... Just think what I'm going to worry about when it comes to choosing schools

LOL at Colditz though. I haven't seen messy activity at any of them tbh. Perhaps I ought to start worrying about this .

I don't wish to panic you but if you want to go private for schools you should be looking at them sooner rather than later

My son's going to somewhere that is between 1 & 2 starting after Feb half-term (had a place early). and TBH he is going there as DD's friends & siblings went there and a lot of children from there end up in my DD's school. I haven't even visited yet but is 5 min walk from DD's school and will only be there 2.5 terms before starting nursery next Jan. I think fun is more important, they have a long school career in front of them don't want to burn out too early

BTW DD didn't go to anything but day nursery as I was working -- but is doing well in her school (now Yr1)

I think friendly, settled staff, a good staff-to-child ratio and a warm atmosphere are very important.

Also: no uniform
no formal learning
an outside play area
lots of messy play.

Personally, I'm with Colditz on this one - we went with the one with the most chaos/most local...! Its all about learning through play, and the more impossibly messy play they do where someone else has to clear up the better, imo!
My key criteria were:
-do I like the staff

• how does ds respond to the atmosphere - he's a gregarious sort and could cope with chaos!
• what have I heard about it from other mums (could you ask mums at local playgrps??)
• is there lots of choice of activities/how much physical/outside play is there (think we tend to assume learning is all mental...)
• how low is staff turnover
• what are their discipline policies
• what are their policies on potty training (DS was actually trained when he got there, but I didn;t want somewhere that was going to force that decision on me before I was ready)

Tatty don't matter one bit, imho!

When I ask him what he does he says 'I ran too fast with Jack & Harri & I had a snack" so I was rather suprised when one of the hlpers complimented me on his excellent phonics skills the other day

Sorry, that turned into a bit of an essay! HTH...

Thanks everyone - useful stuff here. Will talk it over with dh tonight.

Hi TheBlonde (bump must be huuugggeee). I did go through a panic over schools 6 months or so ago and having stressed about it for a while we decided that as our state schools are very good here we would spend the money on skiing holidays instead .

it has to be

fun
cuddly
exciting
with it's ethos firmly set in learning through play

and as long as its kind of ordered chaos i'm fairly happy. dd's playgroup is magical..i never want her to leave ..

thsi week so far at preschool, ds has played with

Marble run
blocks
tricycles
shaving foam on a rubber mat and plastic penguins
Painting whenever they feel lke it
water
sand
cornflour
rice krispies
scissors and glue
story corner
rhyming cards
jigsaws
train tracks
car mat
home corner

It's brilliant there.

oh DD would be in heaven with 'painting whenever I feel like it'....

DH and I had a long talk where we both decided we were both agonizing over it far too much. We thought that formal isn't the way to go at 2.5 especially for a child who won't sit still for more than 2 minutes.

Decision is that I will look at another one (referred to in number 3) and hope I like it and that they can take her in sept (unlikely) and then decide if she will start at number 1 and then swap to number 3 when she's a bit older.

Not sure I'll ever be convinced I made the right decision, whichever decision I make !

Oh I remembered this when talking to dh that the one I saw today she was really interested in the children and addressed them (I went with a friend). Only 'whats your name' 'oh we've had an x here before'. A little thing but it was just nice, and perhaps thats enough.

Thanks for everyone's input. Will go and put a cold compress on my head now.

Location is also important, I think, because they are there for such a short time, you want to be able to make use of the free time. Also, do you know if other parents with the children who go there are happy with it? I'm choosing the slightly tatty one at the end of my road because it's nearby and I'm pregnant, it's small so not too intimidating and other parents I know like it. Hope this helps.

At pre-school age, I think warmth, variety of activities and fun are the most important things. Also, at pre-school level, I wouldn't be inclined to spend the money on a private school unless you've got lots to spare! We are having the state v. private debate at the moment, but ds is already at nursery so will probably stay there until he is old enough to start school. There are two very good state infant/junior schools around us so I think he'll probably go to one of those and then we'll consider private for senior school/sixth form...

Thanks for the latest input !

Just by way of an update, and hopefully conclusion, in case anyone cares (). I phoned the pre school I thought wouldn't have spaces in Sept/ or w ouldn't take her till the term she is 3, and they said they take them at 2.5 and have spaces in Sept. So, dashed there today to have a squizz and it was great but probably only because this thread made me think what to look out for.

IN summary it had the following:

• A messy ROOM
• Lots of activities that I could see dd would love
• Lots of space
• a separate section for ones soon to be going to school where they are a bit more formal, phonics etc
• very friendly staff
• they informally feed to our 2 nearest (good) primary schools so dd would follow through with friends to school

and even better

• the sessions are 4 hours long
• the leader suggested she went 3 mornings rather than the 2 I'd thought

which means I have lots of time sitting around drinking coffee and eating cake - hurrah !! Roll on Sept... Perhaps I won't have another dc just yet

But thanks very much for all this input it really helped get my head sorted about what we wanted/needed.

Sounds excellent

Personally I think one of the most important considerations is where do you plan to send your dc for Reception?

We chose our Pre School because it tends to feed into the lovely village school that we wanted the dc's to attend. It has helped dd that she was at least familiar with some of the children in her class (from Pre School) when she started school, and likewise I knew some of the parents at the school gates

with DS1 I visited several and had lots of questions like you but the one I chose in the end was the one that "felt" right - it was the correct choice as well as he loved it there and did really well.

DS2 started this year and I just sent him to the one nearest to DS1's school.....