Starting school at 3

[Nikla]

My Daughter will be 3 in March and will then be starting school part time. She will be attending school 5 half days a week and for 3 of those would be picked up by nursery and spend the rest of the afternoon there.

She currently only does the 1 day at nursery and spends the rest of the week being looked after by myself and family.

She is very shy, clings to me for a good hour before warming up to other people. Gets quite scared in new situations. Cries a lot and is generally very sensitive. She just seems so young to be starting school.

My eldest was such a different character. Very confident, was always ahead of her years. Very clever for her age and spoke like a child that was much older.

I guess I'm just looking for others experiences of sending their 3 year old to school/nursery if you have a shy and nervous child. I feel like I would be cruel to send her but then is it better to get her used to it early on?

Sorry. Where abouts are you geographically?
is she starting at school nursery/preschool or actual school? I’m a bit confused

if she’s at school nursery my DD started at 2y 2 weeks and loves it, and my friends son started on his second birthday again absolutely loves it!

My elder DD went to a community preschool, and younger DD to the school preschool a few days after her third birthday. Socially, they were similar settings. (Quite different educationally). They are with other 3yos in both.

If she's at nursery, she will be used to other children of a similar age already, even if shy

Sorry, didn't explain that very well. Perhaps it is called a pre-school? It's attached to the school and the kids start from aged 3.

I'm in Wales.

It’s the school nursery class.

It’s just nursery. Whether people call or ‘preschool’ or ‘nursery’ or whatever, it’s play-based early years education and care.

All children in England can go to pre-school/nursery for at least 15 hours per week FOC. It's standard.

From the age of 3.

I know they call it school in Wales, but really it’s no different to preschool/school nursery in England. And given all 3YOs get 15 hours funded and most get 30, it’s very normal to start at that age. It’s not like she’ll be going straight to Y1 style formal learning!

Thanks all.

Has anyone been

Has anyone been in a similar position with a very nervous, generally very shy child?

DS2 wasn't clingy, but was very, very wary of new situations. He is at secondary now, but will still enter a new environmental watch what us going on before he decides if he's joining in.
It's just part of his personality. He was fine with nursery and preschool.

I teach and also have toddlers/pre-schoolers so know lots of little ones. Probably about a quarter of children are very shy at that age - mine certainly were. It's certainly not unusual and the staff will be well used to it. She will be fine but it might be difficult at first. Having said that, does she need to go yet? It might be different in England, but mine only attended private daycare. They cover the same early learning goals; school pre-school was no good for me because of the short hours it offered (although good that your nursery offers a pick up service or whatever). Could she start at the school nursery at a later date, as presumably she's still over a year off starting actual school?

As an update to those interested;

This morning have spoke to our childs current setting. Whilst they have only had him for 2.5 months and there is an amount of settling in, they are genuinely puzzled as to why the new setting are set on applying for Inclusion Funding. The new setting have asked the current setting for 'further evidence of behaviour' to support the application, with the current setting saying (to me) that they are unable to provide any.
The root cause seemingly that an observer of another child a number of weeks ago saw our child pushing other children and has reported this to the new setting as a behavioural issue.
We are waiting for feedback from the new setting as to the basis on which Inclusion funding is sought.

Thank you to all those that have provided comments and feedback.