Nursery and Childcare

[SibusisoTito]

Hi All

Hope everyone is doing well.

I have another baby question lol.

So my partner and I both live in London. Our child is not yet born but will be soon, Dec we believe.

The plan we have is to take take of our child for roughly 11months, or get him to 1 year, then get him in to Nursery.

But there seems to be people telling me, we should be applying NOW for a place at a nursery. Is this true? Should I call nearby nurseries and ask?

Thanks

Already worried dad

[Purpledoggy]

Wait lists for nurseries vary massively. In my area they range from about 6 months to 15 months closer to the city. I got both of mine on the wait list for our local nursery when I was 12 weeks pregnant, but I was only taking 6 months ML and I’m also ridiculously organised 😂 I would visit a few nurseries now, think about who you like most, and find out what their wait lists are. Much better to get it organised than find out they have no space when you need them. You probably need to pay a deposit to secure a spot but then it’s one less thing to have to think about xx

[Cinderella5]

Yes, definitley get your name down for a place. I started looking for nursery places when mine were 3 months old and I really struggled and had to take extra leave at the end of my maty leave to make it all work.xxx

[Solly-44]

Yep start ringing around! A place near us has a 2 year waiting list 🤪 Anywhere with an outstanding rating by Ofsted will also have huge waits.

[Purple276]

I agree with the above - varies but worth looking at a few to pick the one you want. Also another thing to consider is the time of year you want to start at Nursery. The one we want our baby to go to will have room from Sept '24 as that's when a large number of children go to school and make space for newbies. Also much easier to look round them without a newborn!

Good luck 😊

[Positivechangeplease]

Yep! Sadly the nurseries are oversubscribed. We put our names down when our baby was 3 months old (I didn’t have a job to go back to so I was very unsure of when I was going back etc)

For our nursery of choice we were told she wouldn’t have a place until she was 1 yr and 3 months old, a whole year later. Another nursery further away said they only took them at a year old anyway.

I actually got a bit of work (2 days a week for 2 months) prior to her one year and I managed to borrow someone’s nanny for 2 afternoons a week. A bit of a juggling act, I then got a place early at the nursery in July which was lucky as I also started work in July.

so yes. You need to put your name down now.

[Seaneen831]

Hi where abouts are you in London?

Do you by any chance work for nos near Westminster?

also by the age you want a place I believe there will be free childcare being offered by government.

You can private message me if you want.

My son is going to be 5 this December, was in private nursery from 9 months and had 1 year in nursery school (attached to primary) he is starting reception on Thursday.

[Chiefy]

We started looking at 3 months to start at 7 months. We could only get 3 days a week, managed to get up to 4 days when he was 1 and he'll be starting 5 days at 2. Definitely worth calling around your preferred nurseries.

[Emdog87]

It depends on the area. We lived in London with our first and I left it to the last minute and couldn’t get her into a nursery so in the end she went to a childminder. If you know where you want your child to go then I would definitely start enquiring in the next couple of months.

We were in Surbiton and the waiting lists were mental. You can also register on the website childcare.co.uk for free and browse local childminders.

Good luck.