Any 3 year olds attend 2 nurseries?

[JC2021]

So we have put our boy in a local nursery attached to the primary school he is likely to attend. They offer term time only and only 3 hours per session.

I am considering placing him in another nursery for 2 afternoon sessions - 1-6pm and one morning - 8-1pm would that be too much for an age 3yr old? To mix and blend 2 different nurseries.

He currently does 3 mornings 9-12 and from Jan will do 4 mornings 9-12 at the school attached nursery - this would free me up to be able to work also.

My middle child did. Play school because all my kids loved it, and nursery while I worked two days. It wasn’t a problem.

Mine did. They went to private nursery until their pre-school year and then for preschool attended the school nursery for the morning sessions and private nursery for the afternoon,

I never went to the school nursery as the private nursery did the wrap around so i dropped them off at the private nursery in the morning, they took them / picked them up and I got them from private nursery in the afternoon.

Mine went to a combination of private nursery and some sessions at the playgroup - the leave them there kind. The latter was just 9.15-12.15 two mornings a week term time only. Private nursery was all the time. Was fine.

Mine did. All fine.

I’m a teacher in a school Nursery that’s part of a primary school and each year we have a couple of children who attend another setting too. We are 9am to 12pm each day so they might attend a private Nursery in the afternoon- some of these even offer a pick up service at local school Nurseries, or they might get collected by a childminder. It means they get used to the school before then starting in Reception the following year but the parents still get the childcare they need for the full day.

What will you do during school holidays when those sessions at the preschool aren't running and it's a day of work for you? The private nursery is unlikely to have extra capacity in school holidays unless you pay for the sessions that you aren't going to use all year round to keep a space available when you need it.

Will you need to arrange for the child to be picked up from one setting and taken to another setting on the same day to allow you to work a full day? I think that would be upsetting for the child. Having two different settings where a child spent a full day there at one or the other would feel more reasonable but obviously that's not available.

There's a distinction here between early years education and childcare to facilitate parents holding down employment. A nursery attached to a school is primarily about the former and doesn't have the capacity to do much about the latter. A private nursery is primarily about the latter but will, if good quality, be doing everything possible to provide the former to a high standard too.

@SinoohXaenaHide my children were picked up from one setting and taken to the other. It wasn’t upsetting or unsettling - they did it every day so it was fine. And actually brilliant for when they started school when, for wrap around care (which is being picked up from one setting and taken to another) it was no issue because they were used to it.

In many ways, it made reception far smoother

I work in a preschool and we have one child who goes afternoons to a different setting and it's with us in the mornings. However, we take from 2 yo and he has been coming to us for over a year every morning. I think it would be a lot to start 2 nurseries in 2 terms and at the same time as increasing his hours. Can't he just do the 5 mornings per week and poss a childminder to cover work hours on those days you need it. I think it would be easier to get used to a childminder as fewer children and a more familiar home setting, easier to communicate with childminder. Each nursery will have its own rules, routines and types of activities. It's quite a lot for a young child to go from reduced hours, just 3 mornings, to all those hours in 2 different places.

My 3rd did this. He hated both nurseries and it was a nightmare. In hindsight I should have gotten him settled in one first or just used the one nursery.

I think it's okay if you have to, but why not just use one setting that can give you all the hours you need? Mine didn't attend the school preschool to the school she ended up attending (she went to a private nursery and most of her nursery friends went to a different school). It didn't make any bit of difference. She adjusted easily and made friends quickly. I couldn't do with all the driving around to different settings as I would assume you need to work.

Mine did too. They went to school nursery and also a normal nursery. There was no other way around it so they had to. The nursery did the school pick ups and drop offs. A lot of kids did it. We had 30 hours free childcare.
School took 12.5 per week and the rest went towards the private nursery. I just paid extra for the school pick ups.

Yep. Both kids went to private nursery as childcare and did 15 hrs at the school nursery when they were old enough. It didnt save us any money as we had to pay for the nursery place FT, but it was great for the kids.

Yes mine goes to school nursery for 3 hours then is picked up by the private nursery (it’s literally a 2 min walk up the road), which my other child attends full time. So they are both there on the afternoon.

Haven’t had any issues at all, although I do think the fact that he already had a good relationship with the private nursery really helped. He’d been attending there for a year so that wasn’t a change in itself.

My now teenager did 2 sessions at a forest school and 2 sessions at a more academically focused nursery each week. None of them were full-day as child care wasn’t really our goal, though I did manage to squeeze in a few hours of work.

Thanks everyone - well we couldn't afford the private school when he turns 5. So we assumed it would be better to go to the local nursery attached to the school he would likely go to but have just been told there are no full time/full day places offered until next September'22 and I need to get back to work.

Trying to make it work but also don't want to overwhelm him too much either!

Thanks for your replies - seems like quite a few of you do it and it works out fine!

@MerryMarigold I totally agree that it could be too much too soon!

Mine did, the pre school attached to school could only offer 2 x 3 hr sessions, but I wanted her to meet children she would go to primary with (she did, it worked, still friends now in Yr4) and she went to a private nursery a couple of days as well to cover my work. She was an easy going child so it worked great.

My ds2 did. He went to a SEN pre-school about 10 miles away from aged 2 one morning a week and then from aged 3.5 he started going 2 mornings a week at the local mainstream pre-school near where he would be going to school.