School nurseries

[Kirby05]

How common (or not) is it for a family with a child already at a primary school to move their second child to the school nursery attached to the school when that child is old enough to do so? Or do people just keep the second child at their private nursery / childminder and carry on dropping off / picking up from two places? Thank you!

A mix at our school. I really couldn't handle two drop offs and we didn't really like our private nursery. Others who are happy with their private nursery and live a bit closer to school haven't moved.

For the siblings due to start in our school in September next year i'd say its about 50/50.

Anyone that can juggle the shorter hours / lack of holiday cover of the preschool nursery moves over from the anecdotal evidence of what happens at DS1's school! The preschool nursery gives priority to nursery children for after school care, in an effort to compete with the private nurseries, which I suspect helps a lot.

It's mainly based on convenience, I think, combined with how much you like the nurseries. Where I live, families who don't need wraparound care or holiday clubs tend to move their younger child to school nursery because then they don't have to pay for school holidays when they're already off with their school-aged child. The school nurseries don't offer wraparound, so if you need the hours, you keep your child in private nursery.

Most do at ours. But the school nursery kids have access to the same wraparound and holiday clubs as the older one so it’s not a juggle if you work FT, in fact it’s easier because they can be dropped and picked up together year round.

About 50/50 here as nursery can’t access wraparound so 9-1 doesn’t work for most working parents!

Heavily dictated by whether you need wraparound and holiday care here. There's nothing for those under school age, except possibly the summer before they start P1, so if you need more than 9-3 term time only, you stick with private nursery/childminder.

We did this for dc2 but wish I’d sent dc1 to the school nursery as well - it was a lovely environment and has made the school transition for dc2 so easy - she’s in the same playground and opposite her old classroom, with lots of her friends.

Shes autumn born though so was very school ready and really suited the more formal school-like preschool (compared to the private nursery which felt a lot more like daycare for babies, but perhaps would have suited a summer born child more).

None of the children I look after as a cm go to school nursery we do the same things. I collect siblings from one school the ones I had as babies, parents who don't need school pick up meet me at school for their little ones.

It makes a huge difference in helping children to be school ready for Reception. Across our schools, children starting Reception are generally ahead of their peers who stayed at private nurseries, when you take SEND out of it. We have noticed children are more confident, more independent and their speech is better.