3 year old nursery question

[Baileysx]

So my son will be starting nursery in August when his 3 year old funding kicks in. From the model my preferred nursery uses it seems he will have either a morning or afternoon slot for just under 5 hours at a time. I work from home part time and don’t need him in childcare every day. I still have a bit of time before he starts so maybe by then he will seem more ready but I do just feel like every day for 5 hours is quite a lot when I don’t need it for childcare every time. Can I opt for this model then say to the nursery he won’t be in a Friday for example? In his pre-school year I think I’d be more keen for him to go every day to prepare him for school

Yes you can. Nursery is not mandatory so my youngest has a 30 hour placement split over 5 days but rarely ever is in anywhere near as much as the full hours. It's better to book all the funded hours at the start but only put them on the days/ times you want.

I'd speak to the nursery rather than go by what anyone says on here

Op depending on your hours you might be better with 2.5 full days with a private nursery..

I've heard of morning slots being 8am-1pm with afternoons being 1pm -6pm.
8am seems really early and 6pm really late

Yes you can chose.

Yes, you can use anything between 0 and 30 hours.

Please though, don't just book "all the hours you can get" with no intention of using them. Many nurseries are over-subscribed and some families don't get all the days/hours they actually need and may have to do split placements/travel further than their local nursery etc...

Look carefully at what your authority and preferred nursery offer. For example, our local LA school nursery only offers all day placements, 5 days a week in term time but there are other models available in other LA nurseries. Children who attend our nursery often take the 5 day, all day placement but then the children only come for the hours the parents choose and this can vary over the year. We always advise families to take the full placement if there is a small chance they will use it later in the year as increasing days can become difficult at a later date (but I guess that depends on how full your local authority nurseries get).

This was my issue. The 8-1 slot would be my preference but having to have him up, dressed, fed and dropped off by 8 would be quite an undertaking! I was wondering about taking that slot and dropping him off more like half 8/9 as long as that wasn’t disrupting what they were doing or considered as being late. It must be so disruptive with kids coming and going at different times as I know some people take the full day then collect them early as well but what can you do really

@LateOnTheBandwagon i think that would be best if I took the full hours but explained maybe one of the days he wouldn’t be there. I suppose it maybe makes life easier for them as they will be getting the money for the child whether they’re there or not since you’re using your allocated hours

Ahh this is a good point! The nursery is always so busy and really hard to get into so I might not even get my first choice, it’s a shame if it’s because so many people have hours they aren’t using too. The form is quite black and white though, there isn’t really room to explain about not needing the full hours but I’m guessing I’d have to apply for it all then speak to them directly about the hours I’d actually use

I imagine lots of kids will be dropped between 8.30 and 9.00 with the logic that parents are out doing school run too.

I work in a council run Pre School Nursery and yes we’d advise taking the full hours offered and using what you need, you can then up your hours when you wish without having to reapply.
Our start time is 8.30 and we have children arriving anytime between then and 9.10, we have core learning hours which are something like 10-2 and we like most children to be in then.
We’re pretty relaxed though as some children leave for other clubs after lunch, we are a small setting though which probably makes things easier.😊

@Baileysx Are the only options morning or afternoon? My son starts next week as he’s an end of year birthday and when I filled in his application (council run school nursery) there were 9 “patterns” available which mixed full days/half days/term time/full year etc.
I had to select my top 5 choices of nursery/childminders then number the time “patterns” 1-9 in order of preference. All places were then drawn from a random ballot 😳 it’s a ridiculous system where we are! I’m literally the only person I know that got their first choice of nursery and days.

The nursery I work in have a soft start 8.30-9am for drop off. We are a termtime only nursery though. So we do get a steady stream due to school drop off.

But I know from friends whose settings are 8-6 that they have a soft start 8-9 as a lot of parents are dropping off older ones to school too.

Your best bet is to speak to the nursery and maybe try and locate their handbook if it's online.

@Inyourwildestdreams my preferred one only has two of the options available.. so the half day blocks which works out as every day or the full days where you’d have 2.5 or something but it says they only do that one under certain circumstances. They don’t offer the 9-3 model like the council one locally. If I was to do the two full days I’m not sure how I’d feel about putting him in for a full day but I could probably do it and just do a 9-3 really two days a week. The following year I’d rather have the morning blocks though I think so it’s more like school, going every day, but it seems you don’t have to reapply if you take that option the first year so that might make more sense to do

Op what hours do you work?

I really wouldn't worry about having them in nursery / preschool just to get ready for school. Plenty kids won't have been in 5 days a week.

My kids nurseries preference is also to book all the hours they are entitled to. Is your nursery in your local catchment? Though nurseries are not capped to catchment like schools generally kids who live in catchment get priority in our area. If there are spaces left then though outwith get.

This is exactly how my nursery operates. My child is younger but it works the same regardless. 730am - 530pm is a full day or 1230pm is the finish/start for half days. You need to book for a minimum or 2 whole days or 4 half days. We drop DS off at 930am and collect at 430pm.

@Fundays12 it’s a private one but there is also a local authority one, it would be my second choice but we’re in the catchment for both

@Outthedoor24 monday to Wednesday although it is quite flexible.. my parents also do some of the childcare and would still like to do some so if it was mornings then maybe they’d collect him for a few hours after or if it was full days they’d maybe do the third day

You work 3 full days, book your child into nursery 2.5 days, get your parents to collect on the half day. Your child care will be completely paid for.

And make good use of your Thursdays and Fridays with your LO.

Happy memories of making good use of a Science Centre annual pass, the local softplay while my oldest was preschool. I remember watching 👀 some kids programme filmed in the Riverside museum on a rainy Friday morning - would you like to go? - we had a lovely afternoon in the Riverside Museum!

Sod having them in nursery 5 days if you don't need to. I'm gutted that I never got to do those things with LO (covid)

My nursery only does full days. they're happy with pick up and drop off whenever within 0800-1700 when they're open. I try to drop her off before 0900 because that's when they do the welcome song and start the real routine and pick up after 1600. Its never a problem to pick up early or drop off late but I feel it adds consistency to my childs day because the first and last hour are pretty unstructured.

If I wasn't working and had 2.5 days to use I'd use full days and a morning ideally 🤷🏼‍♀️