Continue at say nursery vs. school nursery

[Spainintherain]

My daughter is nearly three and only just started at a day nursery. We are able to send her for term time only and chose it because we liked it, not for the extended hours.

We will need to decide whether to keep her there next year or start at the local primary school nursery. Is there much diffeeemce in the way the children are taught/spend their day? Thanks for any advice

Bump?

The foundation stage curriculum are the same, how they implement it may be different. I took my son to a schoo pre-school as it was in the grounds of the school and I thought would help him when he started school, however I don't think it was the best. Have a look round which is easiest, what are the costs, what do you prefer.

I kept mine in her lovely, small, well-resourced setting, which has a forest school, soft play and a brilliant team of people because I don't want her to be in a formal school setting any earlier than she had to be. School nursery is fine, but not a patch on where she was.

DD2 was at a day nursery and then started at school in reception where it seemed like 90% of the children had attended the school nursery. I was worried about her settling with all the other children knowing each other but she soon made lots of friends. If your DD is happy where she is, I would be tempted to leave her.

Thanks for your replies. I too think about keeping her away from school as long as possible but just wanted to know if there were any positives to going to school nursery

Have you visited the school nursery for a comparison? Many school nurseries are rated Outstanding and have a few benefits such as degree-qualified teachers, contact with future class mates and a day structure that is more similar to reception. My daughter went to an excellent nursery school that really got her ready for big school. My son on the other hand only went to the local preschool because we had moved and I wasn't impressed by the two nursery schools available to us.

Right now she doesn't like going to nursery as she is scared of other children! If she gets over it and settles I would be extremely reluctant to send her to a new nursery in a year.

Private preschools may have a more cosy environment and more staff for the children as L3 staff have a 1-8 ratio.

A school nursery may be more like a school environment and have qualified teachers. However they have a 1-13 ratio so class size potentially could be larger with fewer staff.

Both setting will be fully trained to deliver the EYFS and I can’t see any real benefit from moving from a small private nursery to a school nursery unless you’re unhappy with the care there in some way.