private nursery v pre-school

[geordieminx]

Ds is 3 in May, and therefore gets a funded place at nursery for 12.5 hours from August. He is currently at home with me as I am a SAHM, but goes to playschool/mother & toddlers.

I need to put an application in this month for his place in August and basically have the choice of 3.. (bear with me)

a) private nursery for 2 1/2 days a week - more if I wanted/needed

b) nursery attached to school that I (hope) he will go to when he is 5 - although it is uncertain whether he will get a place at nursery or school (first choice school) - 5 mornings or afternoons a week

c) nursery attached to 3rd choice school (2nd choice doesnt have nursery -in catchement for 2nd and 3rd) - 5 mornings or afternoons a week.

Basically I'm trying to decide whether he would be better 5 days a weeks for 2 1/2 hours or a couple of days at a private one? At the moment I'm a SAHM, but it would be nice to go back to work at some point - obviously every day for 2.5 hours wouldnt enable me to go back, whereas private would?

On the other hand, would 2.5 hours a day be more structured for him? Would it be an easier transition to school - although he will be at nursery for 2 years?

Will the standard of "education" be the same?

How on earth do I make this choice? Or even begin to?

bump

I would apply for both of the school nurseries

Unless you have firm plans for work a full day at a day nursery is a long time

Continuity is an important thing too. Our babes is now 4 years three months, started school last September, so we faced very similar decisions too.

Private/nursery/attached to school

I would tend to apply for both too (in plenty of time) do you know what the waiting lists are like... ?

Standards of education. The Early Years Learning and Development Programme is implemented across the board, so government would argue the standards are 'standardised'. However, there are some important criticisms of the sixty nine Learning and Development requirements (see the following thread and the links mentioned on it).

[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/preschool/884496-Parliamentary-petition-to-downgrade-sixty-nine -early-years-foundation-stage]

It's likely that with a possible change of government that these targets-in-all-but-name will be reformed after the next election.

We found that there were advantages of a nursery attached to a school as in the later months in nursery the nursery did lots of activities which intended to ease the transition to school. i.e popping next door to visit and see what the bigger children were up to...

Hope this helps a little. If you can afford it, don't rush your decision to go 'back' to work...

Good luck

Sorry, here's the right link:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/preschool/884496-Parliamentary-petition-to-downgrade-sixty-nine-early-years-fou ndation-stage

Correction: of course I should have written the Early Years Foundation Stage (not the early years development programme) and the sixty-nine learning and development requirements are part of that. My fingers are cold!

School nurseries are only usually for a year.

It would be 2 years as we are in Scotland - he would go the term after he turned 3 (august), and start school the term after he turned 5 (august again).

The problem is that my first choice of school/nursery cannot guarentee him a place at either, and even if he were to get a place in nursery he may not get a place at the school as we are outwith the catchement (only 1 mile away from school but different council tax areas)

My second choice of school doesnt have a nursery (we are guaranteed a place at this school), and the third choice, although has a nursery isnt really a preference IYKWIM?

I've always worked for 2 days a week since DS was 9 months so he attends a private nursery (he's 3.5 years). I applied for our local pre-school when he was born as it's popular and I wasn't sure what I'd be doing at the time he was the right age. What I actually do now is still send him to nursery (with DD who is now 1) on my working days and then he goes to pre-school for 2 mornings on my "day off". I get my four sessions ie 4 half days re-imbursed at the government funding level from the nursery and then get one of the sessions at pre-school funded. I pay for the other session at around £60 - £70 per half term.

I was keen for DS to do pre-school - he's sociable and is at an age where he likes the company and stimulation and also he will meet other children who he'll go to primary school with which should hopefully make that transition easier. I also get to have a bit of time with DD on my own and can catch up on the weekly shopping etc with one child rather than two !....

Anyway, I agree with the cover your options but you might also find an option to be able to do a bit of both if you need to and you are then left with the decision to make once you know what you'd be offered. If you are trying to find a part time job you would need private daycare but if you also want him to get to know other children in the community then a pre-school would help this....

Hope that helps a bit.

It may help you to find out what the criteria for school acceptance are. (get hold of a form so you can see what you would need to write later/phone the guidance service if they have one).
good luck

Geordie - my ds was at a private nursery 3 x days per week as I worked - it was fine but he'd been there a while and was getting bored.

My job was ending and so I applied for state nursery (he's also May born) and I switched - as

a) excellent state nursery attached our school of choice and so he'd have friends when he started reception
b) it's in my street
c) the private nurery was small and I felt it wouldn't prepare him for school.
d) I could have used vouchers but I'm pretty sure the nurseries in my area insist on extra hours above allocation and with redundancy looming I didn't want to have to pay any extra if not working

So I jacked in work early BUT my decision was also based on the fact that he'd be in nursery one year only which means I can look for work again come next sept and we can just about afford to live on dh's income for that time. However, if in scotland school is later you may need to think about the time you'd not be able to work, finances etc.

We love the state nursery - ds is very happy and coming into his own.

Having had (at various times) my DC in private day care; state nursery (attached to school state school), private nursery (attached to fee paying school) my inclination would be to apply for the nursery's attached to schools.

IMO these give a much better idea of what "big school" will be like and are more like school in their approach to things than the private day care.

Or none of the above? If you are going to carry on being a SAHM he doesn't have to go anywhere and you can carry on with the toddler groups, baby gym and so on.

Evidence in Scotland suggests that preschool provison is of a much higher quality than private/partnership places.

I wouldn't touch the private nurseries if your main aim is to get preschool exp, not to work.

Personally, I think it is irritating when parents apply to schools which they aspire their children to attend, but for which are out of catchment. Where do they expect all the 3 year olds in the catchment for the nice school to go to nusery?

Why not try the other preschool. Even if you don't fancy the school now, going to the nursery might change your mind?

I'm in a very similar situation. (In Scotland, with a DD turning 3 in April and wondering what to do about pre-school. However, I work full-time, but will be on maternity leave until Nov 2010. All of that makes for a more complicated situation.) The three pre-schools that my DD could go to all require her to attend 5 mornings or afternoons, which seems a lot (ie no option to just take 3 sessions). I can see that being of benefit for the year before she starts school, but dragging her out at 9am to 'school' 5 mornings a week at 3 years old just seems, well, a bit sad to me. It's interesting to read washwithcare's post. My gut instinct is that some of the private nurseries around me offer a very poor standard of pre-school education (but others seem to be very strong.) I've not yet seen any LEA pre-schools.

I think it entirely depends what your main motivating factor is (not mutually exclusive of course):

a) stimulation and socialisation for your DS
b) early years "education", or
c) to be able to return to work

My DS is at a private nursery in Scotland for 2 days a week. This started 18 months ago and it enables DH to work on renovating our house and take casual work as and when. When he became eligible for the funded place at 3 we continued with the nursery because, quite frankly, 2.5 hours a day is about as useful as a chocolate teapot if you have things you need to do.

I'm not convinced that DS is doing a whole lot of actual learning (in the formal sense) at his nursery. In fact I'd say that's probably it's weakest aspect. But does that really matter at this age? We do loads of stuff with him at home:- counting, recognising letters, pre-school computer games, etc. At nursery he gets to play and interact with other children his own age, listen to stories and sing songs in a group, dance, play with different toys, etc. and I think all these things are just as, if not more important than traditional "education" at this age.

Sorry - forgot about this thread

WWC - Although it is "out of our catchement area" it is actually the nearest school, its just that we are on the wrong side of the road, and therefore pay council tax to neighbouring council.

Unfortunately choice #1 we arent in area for choice #2 doesnt have a nursey, and #3 is sraping the barrel a bit.

While I havent got any plans to go back to work, I would quite like to, especially if I could find something pt to fit around ds. - 2 hours a day for the next 2 years isnt really going to allow that - I know that if something came up and he was in pre-school I could move him, but ideally I would like him to settle in one place.

Its all so complicated and so many different permiatations (sp?)

Have you visited them all? From an 'education' perspective (which IMO includes how they play, how the day's structured, how friendly it feels etc etc) it depends on the actual establishment; locally to us, we have a couple of fantastic private nurseries which are widely thought to be better than the local pre-schools (and also some private nurseries which aren't as good as the pre-schools).

Re time, agree that going from nothing to a 'full' 8-6 day at a private nursery would be a lot, but nurseries usually have flexible hours available - eg mornings/afternoons/school hours - so it's not all or nothing. To me, going for just 2.5 hours a day doesn't seem much for either the DC to get used to it or you to have any time to do anything else.

I went to see the private ursery on Friday - they can take him from June or August - the manager was really nice, and was quite happy to take him for the subsidised sessions only, if that was what I wanted, and also suggest perhaps 3 mornings or afternoons a week to start with? She seemed very flexible, as regards to starting off with a few sessions and increasing them to meet ds's needs and also mine if the work situation changes

Geordieminx, I'm in exactly the same situation re. schools. We are two minutes walk away from a good primary school, but it is in a different council area. (We are literally steps away from the boundary between the councils.) The school in our catchment area is 30 mins walk. Grrrr.

Dontrun - you're not in Lanarkshire by any chance are you?

No, Dundee. Wonder if this is a common problem.