Talk to me about nursery!

My son is 3 and is starting nursery in the next 2 weeks, but I basically know nothing about except where it is and what the general schedule is. They've scheduled a home visit (which seems odd) for the 7th and no one will give me any more info. The receptionist just says they'll tell me everything at the home visit. They won't even tell me when the first day of school is! It's only a few more days but I'm getting very antsy. I feel totally out of my depth with the British school system and have no idea what to expect for any of this. There's zero information on the council web site so any info y'all can give me about what school is like for 3-year-olds in the UK would be appreciated!

Oh, I guess I should add that this is at a "Junior, Infant, and Nursery School" that's just across the street from us and appears to be ages 3-11.

The home visit is just to meet you and your child and to let you know what to expect when your child starts nursery and the date they can start. I always found them really informal and they answer any questions you have as well. It's nothing to be worried about.   

At the nursery my children went to they slowly started them out, for an hour just to see how it goes and then gradually increased the time. They also encourage you to come in for a visit and sit with them for an hour to see what all they do and this is not only for the child's benefit, but the parents as well so you know your little one will be well taken care of. I'd imagine it's like this in most areas in the UK as well.

SlicesMisses I believe works in a nursery or in that area and can give you more info. I'm sure she will be along soon to respond.

Thanks! I'm still adjusting to how home visit-happy the UK seems to be! My husband is quite ill and has been unable to go to work for a month, so his supervisor has started doing home visits to keep in touch. Doctor home visits, midwife home visits, school home visits, health visitor home visits-- you barely have to leave the house!

Hi there!
I work at a nursery, so, I might be able to give you a little help. I've only been at my nursery for about a month, and I'm sure all nurseries are different, but, I'll give it a shot anyway.

I'm guessing they'll do a home visit, just to see what his favourite toys are, his favourite foods, things he likes doing, how he socializes with the person doing the visit, more than likely, because the person will be either the manager/owner or the even child's key worker. Their key worker will be the person who is your child's touch stone at the nursery. There will be plenty of people that look after your child, but, the key worker will be the person to tell you how his day went, will do observations on your child, and will keep a learning journey on your child. The learning journey's a sort of scrap book and a progression of how your child grew in their nursery. At our nursery, the staff take photos and also type up their observations and put them all into the learning journey. It's really sweet. They take photos from the child's first day, and it just goes on from there.

We all follow what's called EYFS(Early Years Foundation Stage) and here's a link for all of the stages and what they mean.

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/earlyyears

Every nursery's a bit different in their structure. At ours, it's "child centered". For example, today, we made trains(this week's theme was trains) out of the shapes circle, square, rectangle and triangle. The children were given the shapes, glue and some paints, and they were allowed to glue the shapes how they wanted, and painted their art how they wanted to do it. We didn't direct them in how or where to put the shapes down, just let the children's imaginations direct them. Then, we had lots of free play(it was a sunny day, so, we took advantage of it.), we took a few weeds out of our garden, they had their lunch(which is called dinner here) etc, etc.

Everyone that works with children in the UK has to have a CRB(Criminal Background Check) done before they're left alone with the children, and they're either working towards what's called their NVQ2 or 3, or they've already got them under their belt. NVQ means National Vocation Qualification, which assesses that you're fit and qualified to work in your chosen field.

I'm sure that the person coming for the home visit will tell you pretty much the same things, but, I'm hoping this will help you and make you feel more at ease. I'm sure your son will be well cared for! You'll learn more once you can visit the nursery. If you don't feel like they will be a good fit, though, go with your gut instinct and move along.

Abbygirl has pretty much covered anything I would have said.  Nursery year is very much learning through play, following the Early Years Foundation Stage.  We are very into free choice, with some times where they all sit together for story or singing and 5-10 minutes where we take our key group into another room for a small group activity.

It can be quite confusing how the word nursery is used in two different ways - the Nursery year of school (ie the September the child is 3) and a Nursery or Day Nursery (more likely to be called Day Care in the US, child could be anywhere from infant to reception age).  Where I work is a Playgroup, we take aged 2 yrs 3mos through reception age so our key groups are divided by Nursery year and Playgroup year.

The home visit should clear up most of your questions.  We don't do them at Cherubs but we do invite parents and child for stay & play sessions before they start and parents are welcome anytime to ask questions.

These might also be useful:

I'd call the Family Hub if you want child care information and advice:

http://www.thefamilyhubleeds.org/start.aspx

Also:

http://www.cache.org.uk/CacheDnn/Default.aspx

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Diol1/DoItOnline/DG_10034063

http://childcarefinder.direct.gov.uk/childcare-search-results/?DistanceValue=5&distancemeasure=miles&searchstring=Leeds,%20Leeds,%20England,%20UK

HTH. 

How did the home visit go, then? Hope it was nice!