Rosendale or Nelly's?

[ACR2015]

Hi,

My now 9 month old has been offered a spot for a Sept start at both these nurseries.

Currently, baby attends the weekly baby playgroup at Rosendale's and loves it there. And I have also gotten to know some of the staff there.

I had a tour of the Nelly's on Rosendale last year prior to the change in management and had a so-so feel about the place.

Both are similar in costs after factoring in differences in hours. Nelly;s is slightly further away but not a deal breaker. Nelly's has a slight advantage in pickup time because it stays open for a bit later.

I had a show around at Rosendale's nursery and am happy with the set up and know the children there always look happy. However, compared to Nelly's, there seem to be less organised activities for the baby group, and there is only a 3 times a year parent review. Comparatively, from memory, I believe Nelly's has an individual child progress folder that tracks the child's ins-and-outs and what he/she got up to etc.

So now I am in a fix. Because I was almost certain that I would go with Rosendale's when the spot opens us.

Would love to hear from other parents what they feel is important (baby will be 10 months in Sept) to consider especially in comparing two options, and their experience with either of the nursery.

Thanks

[fatcats]

Hello there

My baby is on the waiting list for another of children's centres run by Rosendale school. There is a Facebook group for parents at this children's centre so wondered if it might be worth checking to see if there is one for the Rosendale children's centre?

The children's centre I am looking at is only open 48 weeks a year whereas an alternative nursery I am looking at is open for 51. Also on Facebook parents group I see the children's centre opens at 10am sometimes and has some staff training days where it is closed completely. Not sure if this is the kind of thing that would cause you an issue or not.

I used to work in a related industry about five years ago and back then it seemed in general that children's centres were local authority funded which had the advantage that the setting was not concerned with making a profit. So they were able to plough money into paying better salaries and hiring better qualified staff. As a consequence children's centres often had lower staff turnover etc. Obviously things may have changed since then but I have always thought I would want my baby to go to a children's centre rather than a private nursery if I can get a place. Having said this, I am aware that Nelly's has always had a really good reputation.

The kind of questions I am looking at asking the setting or other parents is whether there is high staff turnover and how well-qualified the staff are. I don't want my baby to form an attachment to a key person only for them to leave after a few months. Also, are you interested in your child attending Rosendale primary school, if so, it might be worth asking if attending the children's centre would have any bearing on that.

Also sorry if this is a really obvious question but have you checked the respective Ofsted reports for both?

That's all I can think of at the moment!