Advice on full-time nursery for youngest in class

[senmeltem]

My daughter, born on 30th August 2021, will start full-time primary school nursery in September(in London), from 9:00 to 3:30. She currently attends a private nursery two days a week, full-time from 8:30 to 5:00.

I was initially fine with her starting full-time school. She is a very confident and bright child. However, we speak our native language at home, and she remains a bit quiet at her current nursery due to the language barrier, though she stays active and participates by nodding or using a few words.

She will be the youngest in her class due to her summer birthday and will face the additional challenge of a language barrier. I don’t want her to experience early school pressure and lose her confidence, and making her emotionally fragile. She is going to wear a school uniform, but she doesn't wear one at her current nursery, and like any child her age, she enjoys wearing different dresses all the time. Could these factors make her dislike school, or is it better for her to start now rather than later? Would sending her for half days be a better option? Any advice or experiences would be great.

The difference between 3 and 4 is huge. She’s got a year at nursery then will be at school. You could increase to 3 days a week in the last term to help with the language but uniform will be fine - she’ll be the same as everyone else.

my dtds are 30 Aug babies (premature) and the only thing I found was they were tired. We did no after school clubs until year 1 and the first term I kept weekends free so they could chill if needed.

I’d stick to private nursery and increase the days. School nursery has no advantage.

It's up to you how many days/sessions you send her for, unless you actually require 5 days for childcare. At just turned 3, 5 full days could be a bit much to start with.

Don't feel you have to send her for 5 days just to 'prepare her for school'. You've got a whole year still to build up to that. This coming year will equate to a quarter of her little life by the time she starts school, she'll change and mature so much in that time. I'd advise perhaps 3 days for now, before upping to 4 after Easter if you can. She still doesn't need to be doing 5 by the end of nursery if you don't want her to. She'll quickly adapt to an extra day when she starts school. It's entirely up to you though.

I don't understand the problem with a uniform though. She'll see that she's the same as everyone else. She's soon grasp that she wears her uniform to school (far more practical than pretty dresses which can be saved for best).

They're be well use to dealing with children who have English as an additional language in a London school so I wouldn't worry too much on that score. There will be plenty of others in the same boat. It's normal for EAL children to present as quieter at first in school, while they immerse themselves in the language they're hearing. Generally, as their confidence grows, the speech soon starts to flow in English too.

Am in a similar position in that my ds is also at nursery and we speak a native language at home; I do think my son speaks and understands lots at nursery though even though he doesn’t speak it at home! So I expect your daughter is more capable than you realise with the language. Have nursery told you there’s a difficultly? Is the only real difference between the nurseries just doing more hours? You could try and up the hours where you are now if she is well settled. I am sort of doing the opposite of you because I reasoned that moving for his last year of nursery into nursery by school will give him more time to adjust and make him more familiar with the school so will make it easier when he comes to start properly.. I think you just have to make the best choice you can knowing your own child.

I don't disagree about timings but school nursery definitely has an advantage - it will be led by an early years qualified teacher.

Depends on the circumstances. Educationally you're right, they follow the same EYFS curriculum so there's no benefit there. Some people do wrong assume private nurseries are just childcare for those who need it, whereas school nurseries are to 'educate', though. So you're right to point out there's no benefit on that score.

Many do try to get their child in a school nursery the year before they're due to start Reception though, if it's the school they're hoping to/likely to be allocated, in order to help their child build relationships with children they're likely to go to school with and get use to the setting. Some schools even offer priority to children currently attending their nursery, although not many do.

So there are some benefits to a school nursery, if you don't require the longer hours that private nurseries offer for childcare purposes.

How likely is that going to be the school she will get a place at? If you are fairly confident she will be going to that school I would move her but otherwise I would stay where you are.

I think there are lots of benefits for school nurseries especially if she is likely to get a place there in reception. However, do you have the option of 15 hours there rather than 30? I’d do that if you could.

August child here. It's up to you how you do it.

My DS stayed in private nursery until December, then I moved him to the preschool in the January in order to prepare him for school, uniform and to mix with the children he would be starting with at the beginning of reception. He went 5 days but I took him out whenever possible.

He then had the full summer with us, no clubs as I felt it was too much for him.

When he started reception in the September I spoke with the school and we agreed that he could do mornings only for the first 2 weeks of term to settle.

Every child is different but I think ease them in gently. If your schedule allows.

Good luck x

It’s up to you how you do it. Those hours would be no good for me with work though. I’d keep her in the private nursery for the longer hours, or if you’re not working, just do mornings at the school nursery.

Does she need to go full time? If you're not working I would only put her part time.

Also you have the option to defer her school start. There is a REALLY helpful facebook group called "flexible school admissions for summerborns'. My son is a summer baby and I sent him to school a year later. He went into reception (people will try and scare you and say they have to miss reception and start in year 1, it's not true) and does not have to skip a year at some point - another thing people who don't actually know how it works will tell you.
It's really worth considering. As someone who works in a primary school I can see the huge benefit of children starting school at 5.

My DD is autumn born, buy started at Christmas after she turned 3, so not much older, and was fine. School nursery is mostly play based, with a little bit of numbers or phonics, mostly in the last term. There won't be any school pressure, though she might be tired from going up to 5 days.

Uniform is usually optional, but DD really enjoyed matching her friend's and telling me who she was dress twins with that day, she has an assessment of Uniform options (dress, trousers, shorts etc), and is fine with that. She also get to pick different hair clips and bobble.

I only have the 15-hour free childcare option. Since traveling to the primary school takes 20 minutes by bus each way, we thought that full days would work better. The morning session is only 3 hours, so it’s not worth traveling there and back, as I don’t want my daughter to get tired.

I spoke with the current private nursery in this morning to see if they could switch to 3 or 4 mornings from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM. I wanted to see all the option, and the nursery is only a 10-minute walk away.

I didn’t know that you have the option to put your child in a public school nursery in the middle of the term. Does it vary from school to school?

Thanks for all the advice from the first comment to the last. It really helped me to think more clearly.

I agree with you about the language issue. She is quieter when she is observing other people as well.

Regarding uniforms, I was worried that she wouldn't be able to experience her childhood fully, not being able to dress as she likes and be free. Other than that, I don’t have any problem with the uniforms. I always try to teach her equality. I’m not raising her like a princess; quite the opposite. But she naturally loves wearing colorful, shiny things. Of course, she can wear what she likes on weekends, but starting school and wearing a uniform for the next 17-18 years made me worry about taking away her joy. However, I am considering putting her in part time.

She will pick up the language fast. Don't worry.

@senmeltem I'm not sure if it varies, but they had no issue with me doing it?

He was initially due to start the preschool in the September and I needed to get my hours sorted with work so he started in the January?

Worth an ask.

In my experience the school nurseries often offer less flexible hours. It's usually every morning/afternoon or 9-3ish or some offer 2.5 days (Mon, Tues, Wed AM or Wed PM, Thu, Fri).

My children both did mornings as we felt that was right for them. It did mean my youngest had to go back again to pick up his older sibling. Do you have other children at the school? I can understand your thinking if so. Otherwise I would presume half days would be less tiring than full days, even with a 20 min bus ride, although a pain for you going back and forth quite quickly, but at least you would have your afternoons free.

Do you expect her to go to this school for Reception? Are there other nearer schools? Where I live that would be considered a long commute at primary age and would be hard to get a Reception place from that distance, but appreciate you may be rural/looking at private schools.

Edited to say: I see you are in London, that seems quite a way to travel for primary to me, will she be likely to stay at that school?

If it helps - mine went 9am - 4.30pm at age 2 with no language (english living in europe) and thrived. The first term only mornings.

I know a few August born kids (my step son, my own son born end of July, and two other August babies)
All settled well in to reception at age 4 - no idea if the ones outside my family went to nursery but ours went to private nursery like yours.
The change to uniform was welcome as it signified going to 'proper school'.
The language barrier - she needs to learn English and will pick it up quicker going every day.
I don't think either will put her off school.