Gatehouse School Nursery East London

[CJA37]

Hi everyone,

We're considering Gatehouse school in East London for our son. He has to go to the nursery there to be guaranteed a place for the school. I'm a little concerned about whether it's going to be lots of formal teaching - based on the school day there's a heavy emphasis on "teaching time" as opposed to free play. Also the day (8:50-3:15), 5 days a week seems very long for a 3.5 year old.

He's my first child and currently with a nanny 2,5 days/week and me the rest of the time so I don't know what level of group schooling is right for a child of that age.

Would love to hear how people feel generally about the "right" approach (lol!) for nursery education and any gatehouse specific comments.

Thank you

So cutting through a lot of this, I have to ask whether you think Gatehouse are equipping your child/ren to perform to a high standard? I can’t comment on sports or music (although would like to - still waiting for lessons to open up!), but I don’t think that they are academically. I doubt that this school will be the starting block towards a top degree from Oxford unless a bucket load of private tuition was thrown into the mix.

Of course, we are all looking for different things from schools, and needless to say that every child is different so experiences won’t be same. I am just curious because we chose Gatehouse because of its happy, nurturing vibe (DC has sadly had a bad experience previously) which it no longer has. But it sounds as if you selected it for different reasons so I am interested to hear your view

And I have to ask - what counts as a ‘decent job’? If I said that I was a high court judge would that give me more credence than if I was a stay at home mum or bus driver (jobs chosen randomly so please don’t be offended if you do any of those jobs!!)