Private day nursery or local authority nursery for 3 and 4 year olds? your views please?

Question

I am studying for an education degree and this is a question i have posed in my research paper. i would love to hear other people's views.

Answer 1

As a working mother I had no choice but to send my son to Private Day Nursery because the LA Pre-School was only for 2 or 3 hours a day and so didn't cover the time I was at work (even though I only worked mornings) and there was no way to transfer him between them.  It was a shame because I'd have liked him to have been able to go to the other one so that he'd already have known his school classmates first.  They all knew each other from the LA Preschool before they started in Reception and he and another boy were the only 'strangers' in the class.

Answer 2

Personally I was a stay at home mom for the first 3 years. When I went back to work when my son turned three I looked into many options, home daycares and local daycares. I did not like the private daycares as they had no set schedules or curriculum for learning so I opted for local daycare with a pre-school curriculum. I was very thankful to find one in the area that had a home-like atmosphere due to the type of people who owned it. The good thing is it is not government or state owned it is privately owned but it is not a home daycare where someone is just babysitting my child. The importance of daycare to me was some sort of schedule and learning curriculum hence why I chose a place that was preschool accredited instead of just a plain daycare.  Hope this helps you.

Answer 3

LA PA TITE ITS A SCHOOL IN GEORGIA

Answer 4

As an ex nursery manager, I am torn here.

Private nurseries cater more for those children with working parents, as the L.A. one is not open at the right times.

If staff with the right qualifications are employed at the private nursery, then the pre-school "lessons" would be good. The problem is that very few private nurseries can afford a teacher.

The other issue here is social interaction. Children introduced to the group at school often don't settle in as well as those that began with the group.

These are my personal views, not necessarily my professional ones.

Answer 5

local any day

Answer 6

I work for a local authority Primary School & Nursery. My 4yr old Daughter also attends this Nursery.

She used to go to a private nursery until she was 3 and honestly, I think the private nursery was better.

At the moment she has an actual nursery teacher and a qualified nursery nurse and I feel she is no further forward than when she started 18month ago. Most of the girls at the private nursery were unqualified but studying & they had so much more energy and enthusiasm for working with the children.

I think that local authority nurseries should be doing a lot more to prepare the children for school during their pre school year.

We have children coming into P1 from our own nursery who cannot even write numbers nevermind do basic sums. Makes life much harder for the Primary Teacher.

My daughter at age 2 could write her own name, knew all her alphabet and numbers (up to 20) due to the young girls at the private nursery putting in the time and effort. Now she's in a local authority nursery she's the only child there who can do these things and has not been stretched any further since.

Initially, I started her at private nursery because I felt she was ready to start doing these things.

The private nursery was worth every penny!

Answer 7

Hi well for one thing i think it depends on which day nursery private or not . I remember my local nrusey days being brilliant, but as i have worked in a private nursey before i dont really like what was going on, for one of thoses reasons where there were teenagers of 18 looking after a room full of children as soon as they passed there qualification they were given a room. Yes they werent on there own.  But if you are in a local nursery your all together and have a teacher and student in a room. I suppose at the end of the day they are getting taught the same way, but hakf the time in private nurserys then get moved around a lot to other nurserys when it becomes to dear for them It seems in a private nursery its all one big rush, to have dinner, to go fr walks, to have playtime, to have tea. Where as in a local day nursery it seems more relaxed. Maybe ive just had a rought experiance of this private nursery. but you can gurantee i wouldnt put my children in a private nursery if i had  the money or not.

Answer 8

I have worked in both. Pre school is so much more better than private day nursary's

Answer 9

Local authority nursery.  Many years ago I tried both and on judging same the local authority was more in line with our educational standards and not purely in it for making a profit.  It also helped my now 32year old son to join in with his local children and then go on to local primary school education - from which he had no trouble settling in as he knew many of his class mates.  Also local invited parents to join them for a few hours each day and participate within the class.  My son has become a caring individual and a respectfull member of our society.  I admit that the learning does not stop within play school or indeed any school though, values etc., are a learning curve throughout childhood and indeed life.  If you pass your degree and I sincerely hope you do I hope you instill within your new career the foundation stones our youngsters need.  Good Luck