Could we skip pre-nursery altogether and apply straight for nursery?

saffron_bookmark_74524 Jul 2026

Our son is in daycare for now, and my partner is taking this year off work, so the question of pre-nursery next June has come up earlier than I expected. My instinct is to skip it. He'd get one more year of a calmer routine, and nursery at 3 already feels like plenty of school. What worries me is hearing that some schools fill most of their nursery seats with their own pre-nursery children. If that's true, skipping might close a few doors. Did anyone here skip pre-nursery? Did it make getting a nursery seat harder?

1 comment

basil_lantern_35744 Jul 2026
I work with young children, and I'd separate two questions: whether he needs pre-nursery, and whether the schools you want need it. For most children the first answer is no. A calm year with a parent at home and daycare is a perfectly good year. The second depends entirely on the school, so I'd ask the ones on your list directly how many nursery seats go to children from outside.
- saffron_bookmark_74524 Jul 2026
  That's a helpful way to split it. I think I've been treating the second question as if it answered the first. Asking directly feels obvious now. I'll make the list this week ❤
- hazel_spoon_29045 Jul 2026
  And when they say 'yes, we take outside children', ask how many they took last year. 'We do' can mean two.
- breezy_veranda_19796 Jul 2026
  Replying to @saffron_bookmark_7452
  We did pre-nursery and I'll be honest, it was mostly for us. Our daughter was perfectly happy at home with family. The one thing it did give her was a year of getting used to a uniform, a bag and a van before the bigger school. Whether that's worth a year's fees, I'm still not sure.
- quiet_hammock_93248 Jul 2026
  Replying to @saffron_bookmark_7452
  Our elder went straight into nursery, no pre-nursery. Got a seat at the second school we tried. Planning the same for our younger one.