Advice on schools/nursery

I'm wondering what other mums think to help me make the best decision for nursery/pre-nursery. Our local catchment school will not offer pre-nursery places, so to take advantage of the 15hrs available to us from Jan 2025 (LO turns 3 in Sept), we will need to choose an out of catchment school. Beyond that, for her full time nursery place, it would really be so much more convenient if she moves to the catchment school which is just around the corner (assuming they will actually offer her a place then!). But that means she will spend just 2 or 3 terms at her pre-nursery school, then move again to somewhere new. She currently goes to a private nursery so that'll be a change in Jan too. She's pretty resilient and itching to go to school so I'm not overly concerned, but do we think it will in reality be really unsettling and difficult for her? My only other options are to keep paying for private nursery but I will be on maternity leave so I'm not sure that's feasible, even just part time! Or choose an out of catchment school for pre-nursery then try to secure a place there for nursery and primary as well so she doesn't have to move, but I'm not a big fan of that idea when the local school is literally 2mins around the corner! What would you do?

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Ok I’m a little confused so bare with me Are you talking about ‘preschool’ attached to the school? Most I know do admissions September-September meaning your little one would go next September Are you asking about moving her somewhere in Jan and then again next September? I personally wouldn’t do that - sorry to say it can be really unsettling for little ones If you’re currently using private I’d leave her there until she can move to preschool - you’d be entitled to the free hours the same? I’d also approach the school about LO starting the preschool at your catchment school from January - they may allow this if their not full which is happening more and more for preschools due to parents needing wrap around care :)

@Amy sorry I probably should have specified I'm in Wales and I think it's different here, but yes we get 15hrs of "pre-school" which is referred to as pre-nursery, because she is a Sept baby and eldest in the year she's not entitled to a full time nursery place until Sept 2025 (or actually I was reading today it might be Jan 2026... but I'll figure that out at the time!), however she is entitled to part time, 15hrs a week in an education setting, plus another 15hrs a week in childcare (like wraparound care) from January. If we leave her in her current private nursery we will only get 15hrs funding as the setting is only eligible for the childare element and not the education element of the offer, so we'd lose 50% of funding. I hope I'm making sense 😅 it's a minefield! But you've answered my question by saying that you feel moving her in Jan then Sept would be unsettling. It's just so frustrating that there's no other option aside from forking out over £1k a month when we should finally be getting some help!

Oh wow! I didn’t realise it was so different I’d have assumed the funding worked the same! That’s so so annoying that they split it like that :( It’s so rubbish to miss out!

Like you... Our boy was eligible for a funded pre nursery place for summer term but we decided to keep him in his cylch meithrin (and pay) and wait until he starts nursery in Sept. I was afraid to chop and change for the sake of one "free" term and didn't want to put him off before nursery in Sept. My understanding is you apply each year for pre nursery, nursery, reception regardless so you can apply to one setting one year and another the next.

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