How any hours do 3 year olds do at preschool generally?

[Cafeaulait27]

Hiya, I have an almost 2 year old but thinking ahead to when he turns 3 and starts pre school (which is linked to the nursery he is currently at). He is at nursery 2 days a week at the moment, another with MIL and I work 3 days. Husband works full time and I believe we’ll get the 30 hours free. The nursery and preschool are open all year round and spread out the funding over the year.

just wondering what’s normal for preschool, he loves nursery so I don’t think he will have a problem with attending more and I’m hoping I could maybe go up to 4 days at work when he turns 3. But I wondered, what’s the norm for preschool? How much do children attend? Kind of clueless as he is our first.

Mine attends 4 days per week as she finds 5 too tiring and ends up distressed at school. She has Wednesdays as her rest day.

Mine does 3 mornings a week. But some there do all day 5 days a week so it's up to you really.

Some do a couple of mornings. Others are in 8-6 Monday to Friday all year round. And everything in between these extremes.

Ours says a minimum of 3 full days or 5 mornings. Most seem to go everyday with a mix of mornings and half days at the beginning but build up so are pretty much full time by the end of the year.

I think 3 full days maximum is good for a 3 year old.. or a mix of morning and afternoon sessions across the week.. I think it’s recommended that kids don’t do more than 30 hours external nurseries etc., before they hit school age..

There’s a huge mix round here-lots just do the basic 15. The 30 hours ‘free’ aren’t free though-it really should be called ‘partially funded’.

My DS does 5 mornings a week.

They spread it out so you either do mornings 9-12 or afternoons 12-3 or if you're entitled to 30 hours it's 9-3. You can't pick and choose the days you want them to go it's Monday-Friday and you can't in ours do some mornings or some afternoons.

They also have before and after school clubs that run until 6/6:30pm. I much prefer pre school to private nursery's in my experience.

They're free if your pre school is 9-3 the same as school hours.

My little one starts in September and will be doing as the eldest did, 5 mornings at the school nursery.

Mine does 3 days, 8.30 till 6pm and has done since he was 19 months old (he is 4.5 now)

The first 3 months where had as he didn't nap very well there but once he got a bit older and dropped his nap anyway things got better.

He loves it, he has some days he is tired but nothing more than I am after a day working 🤣

I think it varies a lot.

If it's a private preschool/nursery, then I think 3-5 days are the norm. Most parents who use school preschool have a SAHP or very involved grandparents in my experience because otherwise the school holidays are tricky so often only do 3 days of preschool or 5 mornings.

Mine does 7.30-6 x4 days a week, if it wasn't for my Mum, it would be 5. He loves it, gets so excited about going in and comes out happy telling us about his day. Goes to bed at 8.30 and wakes up at 5.30, so I don't think it's too tiring for him, but then he has done those hours since he was a year old.

My daughter attends nursery attached to the school.
It's either 2.5 days at the beginning or the end of the week.
By the end of her 2.5 days she's tired!

I work in a school but this inflexibility with pre-schools, including school pre-schools, really frustrates me. I'm so glad my daughter's school didn't have an attached one most children went to, because it puts parents who work more than a couple of days a week at a real disadvantage. Unless you have a very flexible job or willing grandparents, how can you send a child 9-12 all week? I'm amazed so many parents can.

I think it's important to know that if the preschool is open all year round you won't get 30 funded hours every week, it will be more like 22 a week based on the youngest's provision, they work it out at two full nursery days funded every week. They also charge a fee for consumables etc, I've seen posts about the legalities of that on here but equally the places aren't funded correctly by the government so personally I won't question that top-up as we'd be stuffed if this particular provider had to close. However other places do other things so the calculations may vary, I just wanted to say that it's not a flat 30 hours free all year as that caught me out initially.

For contrast, my eldest is at school preschool so is term time only. The full 30 hours is 8.45-11.45 and then 12.30-3.30 every day. We pay £3 for lunch supervision for the gap. We currently only get 15 hours so she started off doing five mornings and then we added on some lunch breaks, and has now gone up to a couple of full days which we pay for the extra session for.

Dc1 went 5x afternoons. I had a 3mo dc2 st that point so we would drop dc1 off, come home and sleep, then go back and get her. She did 2x years at Preschool as December born, so her second year she went 5x days. Her days were 9-3. I used a childminder for wrap around.

Dc2 went ft 9-2 5xdays from age three.

@Llamafield totally agree and it has actually delayed me returning to work (in schools!) Because I can't physically get to any workplace near me in the time windows we get from preschool, because they can't access any wraparound. That's why my youngest will be staying at nursery until she starts school. It's a shame as it has made the transition to reception very unstressful having the eldest already there, as it's literally a new teacher and a few new children, in the classroom next door. But the benefits of that don't outweigh the impact on the family finances of me being capable of earning well but unable to access that work at the same time.

Generally session time when all the activities and main learning goes on is 9-3 outside these hours it is wrap around care and the activities then may be aimed towards quiet things and a bit of down time as well as meals/snacks. School age children may also be attending at these times.

Generally the majority of our children do 9-3 around 2/3 times a week. Some only do 5 morning/afternoon sessions. Children who are there outside of session times are usually there for childcare reasons rather than educational reasons.