UK mums - state nursery provision

[anna*]

I'm sure that's right ^^
I guess all I can do is put her name down in a couple of months time and hope for the best!

[cuckoochick]

Good luck with it. It's frustrating for sure that she might miss out on a few terms because she was born a few months out!

[creations]

I don't think any of our nurseries ever have paying kids. Definitely not something I've heard of ever happening. I'll enquirer but it seems to me that if they're full, then paying wouldn't make a space come free, yk?

I didn't think that state nurseries would take payment either but it's happening here for that first term prior to LO getting their free hours.
The point about payment is that the place is taken from September so they DO get a place where as if you hoped for a January start they wouldn't get a place if there was no January start in that year or in that nursery.
I also know someone got a September start with an October birthday but again paid for the first term because the free hours do not begin at the 3rd birthday but the term following the 3rd birthday.

If you look at the available preschools and day nurseries in your area you might find you like one of them for 2 terms and apply for the state school provision form the September.  You can look up the ofsted reports for all the private day nurseries, see their website, visit them and chat etc.  I honestly didn't think I would be so attracted to the private day nursery that I registered DS at, it took me by surprise how good it is and how much they do with the kids.

[*Ali*]

The free two year old places are for those with benefits or special needs or under social services. Run of the mill working families earning over about 16k a year are not eligible. It is a national thing that started this month.

Sorry,  by preschool I mean those nurseries that aren't attached to schools but are not a private daycare.  So they don't do all day care while parents work they just have two three-hour sessions morning and afternoons. All the kids just go for one or the other.  They generally take place in halls in churches or community centres and the like. Around here they tend to be under subscribed so it is easier to get a place.

[anna*]

Oh right. OK I haven't made that distinction. Of the places nearby, two are 'stand-alone', two are attached to schools, but they all seem to have similar entry criteria. They all do either mornings or afternoons only to start, but at some point (with Stan it was his last two terms) can offer full days (9-3). In fact, the two placesI would really like to go to are both pre-schools by that definition - up to rising 5 only, not attached to a school. But heavily oversubscribed. Maybe because most primary schools in the borough DONT have nurseries attached?

[*Ali*]

Yeah maybe

[Hedgehog17]

There is only one local authority run nursery in our district council area, and it happens to be the one DS goes to!

He is currently in the 0-3yo section but will move up to the 3-5yo section in January when he gets his 15 hrs funding (September birthday). We were advised that to get a place we should enrol him in the 0-3 section for at least a term first (eventually we decided to put him in for 2 terms + over this summer doing just 2 mornings a week) and we got our first choice place (5 mornings) in the 3-5 section  The nursery is in the same building as the Sure Start Childrens Centre so we had been using that for ages before DS started nursery.

All the other nurseries and pre-schools around here are private, some are attached to primary schools, but afaik they start children at any time of year..

I think the problem is that Audrey was born in a boom year so there are a lot more children than places unfortunately  My DS (who will be 1 school year ahead of her) may find it difficult to get into our first choice of primary school due to this as well 

If she does have to wait, is the childminder able to provide suitable activities for her which would be similar to what they do at nursery?