nursery place for 3-yr old

[licsa]

Hi,

I am new here - moving to London from Toronto in about a month or so (we don't even have an address yet).

I'm looking for advice regarding finding daycare/preschool/care for our daughter. She will be 3 years old in August this year. I understand that for the 2011 academic year chances of her getting into a nursery that's affiliated with a school are slim to none, since the admission deadline has already passed and wait lists are long.

Given this situation, what do you think are my chances to get her into a private fulltime daycare? Is there a shortage of places as well? Am I delusional to hope that we can find a private nursery place right away and I should also start looking for alternatives such as a childminder or babysitter?

Thank you very much.

Just quick as on my phone. I got my daughter straight in to the preschool linked to our local school. It has an excellent ofsted but we did not need to wait.

google your local nurseries, get on the phone! a lot don't have deadlines, but what you may find is that your daughter goes to the bottom of the lists because she is young in the school year...I applied for my son when he was 3months old at local nurseries, still dont have a place as he is an August birthday and all older kids get jumped above him. I am furious about it. waiting for everyone holding more than one place locally to bloody decide and then we can see what places are going spare

Thanks a lot for the fast responses! I will get on the phone as soon as we have an address - until then I don't think there's much I can do, or can I?

Never occurred to me that an August birthday could be a disadvantage...

i think it depends on area. In Lancashire private nurseries take you straight away if they have places and they don't care where you live so you can book her in straight away. Even school pre-schools will take now if they have places as school nurseries (near me anyway) are separate to schools generally i.e. a nursery place generally doesnt contribute to the DC getting into school. Most pre-schools near me take anyone (although those intending to apply to the school get priority) but they dont always need an address to apply unless very oversubscribed. Some pre-schools are from the term after 3rd birthday, others only for the one year before staring school so look around.

If you want full-time day care then a private nursery may suit you better than one attached to a school. Most state school nurseries are only 9.00am till 3.00pm or 3.30pm and not all of them offer before or after school care/clubs. This would mean you might have to do a combination of childminder and school nursery to get the length of day care you need.

On the other hand state school nurseries are free - so it might work out cheaper to do the childminder/school nursery option.

Once you know where in London you will be living you could contact school nurseries. They may already be full for September, but if not they will tell you and you may be able to reserve a place for your daughter. Private nurseries will also be able to tell you whether they have any places and may take a booking even without a definite address.

Once you have an idea of which Local Authority you will be living in, their website should give you details of local childcare options.

most state nursery schools in west london offer only afternoons or mornings (9.15-11.45) don't know the afternoon times but only 2.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. Also they are often 20 to a class and only two teachers. Private pre-schools or nurseries offer longer times and better teacher/pupil ratios plus you can phone up now and reserve a place. However, the good private pre-schools and nurseries will probably have waiting lists but you need to phone up and see. Read Ofsted reports may help a bit.

Hi welcome to London. My DH is from TO and you will find a lot of Canadians hereabouts (sorry assuming you are too - but you may be an expat? )

We are in W12 and our two closest state nurseries are both full time for the year before starting school - so it really does depend. If you don't need childcare as such i would definitely start with the state route, if you need childcare (ie 50 weeks a year and/or a longer day) you will need to look at private nurseries too. The private nurseries will tell you availability now, the contact point for the state provision is your Local Authority and you need an address before you will get far with them.

Do you have any idea which area you will be looking at living in?

In my area the nursery attached to the school will still accept you if there are places available. Our local nursery attached the the school is undersubscribed this year. The private nursery also offers wrap around care where they can do a morning in the private nursery, have lunch then take them to the school nursery. They are next to each other so this may just be a local set-up

Thank you very much for all the responses and for the welcome. This forum is an amazing source of information!

Yes, we would like to get her into full day care 5 days a week, as both of us will work full-time. My partner has obtained a job in London and I will be working remotely for my current employer, from our London office.

We don't know yet which local authority we'll be in, that's a whole other story. We're currently trying to secure a place and we must make a decision by the end of this month, otherwise I might go crazy :)

So far, I contacted two school nurseries in Chiswick (one of the areas where we're looking at, not the preferred though) and both of them informed me that they were full for the upcoming year and had long wait lists for nursery.

Looks like private nursery might be more doable or, if we can find a place, a combo between school nursery and wrap around care (in Toronto many private nurseries offered the wrap around option to children enrolled in school nursery - although the terminology is somewhat different than here).

Thanks again!

fifi25, which area are you in, if you don't mind me asking?

Gateshead - Its the mulberry bush who offer wrap around care, not sure if they are national or just up north