Can someone please explain to me the Scottish nursery system?

[Emma1609]

I've been living in England for 8 years and am now moving back to Glasgow, yay! I have a 4 year old who will be starting school in August. Could someone kindly explain to me the nursery/preschool system in Glasgow as I have no idea? In terms of private nurseries, council run nurseries, pre schools, costs, funding, availability etc.

Huge thanks!

Try www.gfis.org.uk

I'm not in Glasgow but someone will come along and be able to help out in detail.

Do you need all day childcare or just pre school nursery sessions? I'm not in glasgow and haven't had children in nursery for long time but this question is key I think.

Not Glasgow but a neighbouring council.

We get 16hrs a week funded, usually you can use this at a nursery attached to a school, our school offers:
8:30 - 11:30 or 12:30-3:30 (mon-fri) term time. They get these hours the term after they turn 3yrs old, so a maximum of 2 academic years before they start school.

Some local authorities also have ‘partnership Nurseries’ that allow you to use your ‘free’ hours in a private nursery and these are deducted from your bill.

Or you can pay for private nursery, ours is £50 per day for 8am-6pm.

Hope that helps?

You can put your postcode in the Care Inspectorate website and find all childcare providers near you.

Or if you don’t need childcare then your local school Nursery is the best option.

hi

your child needs to be 4 before 28/2/18 to start school in august, if they are already 4 it is fine, if they are 4 on or after1/3/18 they will not start until 2019

If your child starts school in August I think your best chance of a nursery place will be in a private nursery. Council nurseries are very very full.

Remember you can defer January and February babies.

Wow thanks everyone for all the replies. She was 4 in Sept 2017 so will definitely be starting school in August 2018. I guess I will just have to ring around the council nurseries first then the private which is probably more likely. I've got a baby too so probably won't be able to afford to go back to work until dd is in school, especially if paying full private rates and/or 3 hour sessions.

If she's starting school in august 2018 have you applied for a place yet? I'm sure it's around now you need to apply. Knowing where she is likely to go to school will be important in choice of pre-school.

I'm in Edinburgh, but assume timescales are similar, and schools have already done catchment enrolment. I think people have until end December to put in placing requests. The council usually keep some places for people moving into the catchment before the start of the year. I'm not sure about Glasgow, but in Edinburgh there tends to be a bit of movement between schools, and people who get places then defer and free up spaces from the waiting list.

I can highly recommend getting her into the school nursery where she will start P1. It makes starting school so easy. In our school, nursery and P1 are next door to each other, the nursery children take part in everything that goes on in the school (nativities etc.), and are used to it all.

Registration in Glasgow for P1 was a few weeks ago. So you might not even get your catchment school if you have not yet registered Depends on where you are though - some primaries are over subscribed. Glasgow Primary schools are getting quite tight on numbers (I think there are plans underway to build new ones).