I've posted before about preschools and nurseries and assessments for spots, and now that we've taken almost 3yo DS to two schools in SE London I am being pressured by one school to accept or decline, but the second school has not yet made any decisions. The first school is Herne Hill, which was lovely, and the second school is DCPS, which was also grand if not a bit intimidating... Herne Hill just goes by who is on the list in time but DCPS admits based on who gets past the assessments. We were on the HH list in time and they were fine with DS, so he has an offer, but I don't know what to tell them yet because DCPS won't come back to us for a few weeks yet at least.
We are living abroad right now but will be back in London in September, when DS is3.5yo, so we figured he would need to go somewhere, but the desirable local school and other desirable private (Alleyns) don't take kids until reception, so I don't have him down for anything else.
We really liked HH. DCPS is of course great but I didn't get the warm fuzzies from them, if you know what i mean (I'm sure this is absolutely to be expected with a very popular private school - they don't have to try to sell to you, you have to hope they take you after all). And I do honestly know that I'm lucky to have such choices, but I'm unsure what to do. Do I call the HH people and ask how long I have to decide? Do I call DCPS and ask when they will make offers?
Further complicating matters is the fact that I'm not convinced that I want DS to have a single sex primary school...secondary school, ok, but not all the way through? So I guess I am leaning toward HH.
Sorry for such a rambling post, I'm not sure even what my question is but perhaps someone can give me some advice...even if it is that it's not such a big deal as DS is only 3!
One last question - is kindergarten normally 5 days a week to start (mornings)? HH start you on 5 mornings plus 2 afternoons a week, which seems a lot to me. Right now ds goes to a school here 2x a week until 1:30, so we still gets lots of time together.
Tia