Ha ha that is my assumption of course... One full time working member, and one part time...

Why should the woman have to work part time and the man full time? Either the legislation needs rewriting or you have an unconscious bias issue in how you're interpreting it!

It is not the nurseries that have the grant - it is the parents.

The government have said they want to give all parents of three and four year olds 30 free hours of nursery education and private providers have the option to join the scheme, or not. The new 30 free hours are means tested, and if you have a joint income (the man has to work full time and the woman part time) of over £99,999 you won't be eligible anyway. Based on this, plus the cost to administer the scheme, many nursery providers will chose not to offer it. This is a nationwide issue, not a local one.

There has been no final decision yet, but it will be up to individual providers to decide what they do. Some providers may of course decide to offer the 15 hours as they do now and not the 30.

Hope that is helpful!

I know of a couple of children at Thomas's who went to Ecole de Parc so I wouldn't be concerned that you are closing any doors by choosing this nursery.

I am very interested in the comments about private nurseries losing their grant though as I had not heard of this!

Hello there
We are also a bilingual, and full-time working family. My experience dates to 5-6 years ago but both my children attended Ecole du Parc (which we loved: small, nurturing, caring, welcoming - a great first schooling experience) and then joined Thomas's in reception. We were also offered Broomwood, so I wouldn't worry about the "feeder" aspect. Unfortunately we have lost touch with most of their lovely friends from the Ecole, as around half joined Ecole de Wix and the rest went to other schools.
VdM

Thank you, very helpful

My daughter is at ecole du parc and she is v much enjoying her school life. They have different teaching style in compare to marmalade cats, as no learning of phonics at PPS class but more of through discovering or exploring. For example, those two weeks the school kids enjoy the whole process of hatching chicks, and previously they got the special visit by fire fighters. Other bonus point is as trilingual family, she has managed to master her French. The school has two campus one French only, one bilingual, so quite popular for non speaking French families too who wants their child to pick up another language. The parents association of school is active and parents all v communicative.

It is truly unbelievable. completely agree that you are penalized for holding a good job in terms of childcare costs going through the roof..

Completely off topic but when I add up the cost of childcare the numbers are eye watering. I have to pay nursery fees, holiday club, au pair and holiday daycare and the final tally is way above the average salary in the U.K.
It's true the option of working is only for the rich and I'd love one of the parties to finally take some action on this.
(Not meaning to turn this into a political post)

Absolutely. I wish they had them for the entire duration of every holiday.

We otherwise try to time our holidays during the periods when nursery is on break and there isn't holiday club or we pay our au pair for the daycare.

It works but we wouldn't be able to do it without nanny/au pair cover.

Thank you so much- we are a working family as well so the better hours at Ecole du Parc plus the holiday camps are definitely a draw! Do you use the camps as well?

My daughter attends Ecole Du Parc and she is unbelievably happy there. She bounds out the door each morning so as a parent I can definitely recommend it. I'm also always impressed by the quality of the learning she is getting.

We would also like her to attend a local prep school (Thomas' or Newton) but we need a decent day of care as we both work. As it is the hours for Ecole are a pain for us so I can't imagine only getting a morning or afternoon slot and hence we are forced to look at the non feeder options.

As a parent though, compared to others I'm relatively relaxed about her not being in a "feeder school" and whilst we will be disappointed if she doesn't get into our chosen prep school we will survive.

If Thomas' / Broomwood is a must for you, then its probably safest to go for a feeder school. If you just want excellent quality care then I cannot imagine you will be disappointed with Ecole.

Good luck with your choice. Both are great nurseries so its not like you can go wrong.

just to add that there are very few children from the feeder nurseries that are rejected (think this is because they come from the feeder nurseries) by these 2 schools, most get an offer or are put on the waitlist. So they increase your chances but there is no guarantee.

Yes, aware that the private nurseries may not get the grant anymore, the grant is for children of 3+ at the start of each term, so you wouldn't have got it anyways in your first year at the nursery (presumably your LO will start at 2+)

Also if anyone has useful recent experience with Ecole du Parc followed by applying to local schools would be really helpful thanks!

Thank you so much for all the detailed very helpful questions. I just realized I had not worded the original email correctly- Marmalade Cat (and most private nurseries in Wandsworth) may become ineligible (not eligible!) for the subsidy of £600 per term. I am not sure if many people know this as other murseries have not been as transparent it seems. It seems also from your input that the feeder element is less important than people believe it is- which is useful. Thanks again