a bit of nursery advice

[strangerthanfiction]

My dd is 22 months and has never been away from me or dp before. I work 2 days and he looks after her on those days. We're now in a position financially for her to have a day or two at nursery which would give me a little break (I look after her solo the other 5 days so am effectively working a 7-day week) and would hopefully be good for her. The thing is we don't have a massive budget so we can either afford 1 day in a 'posher' nursery or 2 days in a 'cheaper' one. We've visited a 'posher' one yesterday which was nice. I've visited 2 'cheaper' ones which were pretty dreadful. I'm in a dilemma though as I know it's probably not a good idea to send a 22 month old for just 1 day a week as she will find it hard to settle.

What do you think I should do???

[strangerthanfiction]

Thanks hoxtonchick, I've been checking out that website too. Hard to tell from the Childlink which are surestart run centres though. Of about 30 nurseries I've looked at info for, not ONE of them offers half days ...

Batters, the moment I walk into a nursery and get a feeling of love and warmth and general friendliness towards dd I'll feel happy with it, whether expensive or cheap. So far I've met mostly a lot of apathy and exhaustion from staff. Which I understand. Especially after seeing that damned programme last night.

[muminlondon]

my sister works as a teacher in a private nursery school - I think the youngest children are 2.5 years old as the children are expected to be toilet trained because the teachers are not insured to change nappies and in some schools 3 is the lower limit. She has warned me that some nurseries can be too structured - worksheets, that sort of thing - but if well-run encourage imagination and self-confidence. They have half-day sessions. Some places like that also have daycare centres attached for younger children or for wrap-around care - I think the staff are nursery nurses rather than teachers. But my understanding is that the set-up is quite different (nothing like the horrors in that programme).

[muminlondon]

sorry, I should correct something I said there - a nursery school/kindergarten can't refuse to take children who aren't toilet trained because that would be discriminatory - it's not about insurance, but there are legal requirements about the number of staff in a room. But anyway, she's a qualified teacher rather than a nursery nurse.

[strangerthanfiction]

muminlondon, I'm actually in the process of checking out our local school, the one I'd like dd to go to at pre-school time, to see if they do anything for younger kids. I don't mind waiting til she's 2.5. Or even 3 if I have to!

[marialuisa]

Must be a london thing. There were no nurseries that charged more than £35 a day in our area and the average cost was about £28 (at hich level they were all much of a muchness). Then there were a few nurseries that charged about £15 per full day and they made the places on TV last night look like kiddy heaven! sorry if my comments have offended anyone.

good luck STF, as others have said, you'll know when you've found the right one.

[muminlondon]

STF, apologies if I'm giving you obvious information, but you can get a listing of LEA nursery schools under 'pupils 2-5' on the Ofsted site (and associated reports) here . Good luck anyway.