Advice needed please

[Adeona]

Hello. My husband and I both work full time and our 2.5 year old goes to a private nursery. We just moved to a new area where the nursery he goes to is only 15 mins walk from my work which is great. The nursery is next door to a primary school, there's only a wall separating them so I was hoping we could send him to pre-school next year when he turns 3 but I wasn't at all aware that pre-school is only until lunchtime and then we'd have to pick him up! I asked the nursery manager if the staff could go and pick him up from school but she said they don't do that. I am now unsure of what to do. Would we be better off leaving him full time at the nursery until he starts school? he will be entitled to the 15 free hours anyway at the nursery but in terms of education I don't know what the benefits of pre-school are and if he might be missing out? If anyone can shed some light i'd be grateful!

[drcrab]

My DS has just left full time private nursery to start reception in sept and he's done v well. There's no way the 9-1pm Pre school setting would have suited us as we both work ft. In the preschool year of nursery (from aged 3-3.5?) the nursery did lots of stuff like sounding words, drawing, holding pencils, reading etc all in the fun way and he's definitely not lost out.

I wouldn't switch ESP if it doesn't work for work reasons and if you are happy there anyway

[Adeona]

Thanks drcrab, yes he's happy there and learning loads already. We'll probably leave him there anyway which would give us an extra year of "peace" before we start worrying about schools!!

How are you managing the school hours if you both work full time? Do you or your partner leave work early to pick him up?

[drcrab]

Our jobs are pretty flexible so it's a mix of us picking him up, friends doing the pick up (sharing - so we might pick their kids up one day and them picking mine up another), after school activities... When picking your choice of school, might be a good idea to ask about extended school clubs (ie those clubs that allow you to work till 5 so you can pick him up by 6!!).