independent v state preschool ...am confused!

[shouldhavebeenaspicegirl]

I'm at the stage of looking into nursery school places for my DD who will be 4 in December. I understand she is entitled to 15 hours free place a week.

However, I have rung several state (attached to state primary schools) pre-schools, and they are full already for September.

I have also rung several independent (posh private schools) and they all have places, and all offer the 15 hours free. Am I missing something here?

The only explanation I can come up with for this is that it would be better to get the child into a pre-school where they would then stay for primary, although this isn't necessarily the case, with catchment areas etc etc.... Don't get me wrong, the state pre-schools are totally lovely, but as are the private ones, and the private ones do offer better facilities (swimming pool etc), and smaller classes. I can't understand why the independent schools (offering free places) aren't full....? Anyone?

I would guess your reason is the correct one (people wanting to send their children to the preschool where they are likely to go to school).

Also can you do "just" 15 hours at the independent ones? The ones round here you have to do more and of course end up paying the difference.

Also (2) you may have missed state pre-school applications - the ones round here had to be in by Jan (?) so places would largely be already allocated.

The state preschool that DS goes to is v popular, to the extent that we were only offered 2 sessions originally. I put his name on the waiting list before he was 2 as I had been warned that placed get filled quickly.

One of the main reasons that I chose it is because it is on the site of the primary school that he is going to (although they are not actually part of the school). It is also much smaller than the private nursery.

I found the same thing. DS1 is in a private pre-school and we just get a fee deduction, rather than a free place. It was the same at the private schools, too. We did look a prep school who would only accept children for 5 mornings or 5 afternoons, so way more than 15 hours and therefore quite a bit more than we were willing to pay.

I went for the one that I liked the best and thought it would suit DS1 better than the others. Standards differed widely; the best was the only state nursery in our town and the worst (IMO) was rated outstanding by Ofsted.

Check it is really free and not just a fee deduction

The state preschools may be more popular as they are much more convenient for people with older children already at the primary schools