Marmalade caterpillar/ afternoon pre school Post Reply

[Polster21]

My 3 year old will be moving to a new nursery in the autumn and we have an afternoon place provisionally at marmalade caterpillar in balham. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of their little one doing afternoons rather than mornings in a pre school environment and whether it worked. I'm a bit concerned that she'll be too tired to learn much in the afternoon and that we ought to be looking for a morning place, but would love to hear any thoughts people have. She is used to a full day at nursery but I'm not sure how much learning she's been doing!

Thanks

[Bluebird27]

Hiya!

My daughter is in the afternoon class at Marmalade Caterpillar and we couldn't be happier. She started when she was 2 actually and I was terrified that she would be too tired to learn, though she has adapted beautifully! She looooves it! And she has a few other friends who started at 2 as well and are doing great too!
It's really an excellent pre-school that is incredibly well run.
If you have any questions feel free to PM me. X1

[pie81]

It's worth asking them if any morning places have come up as people move all the time. (And if you have asked before, ask again...!) It is an excellent nursery school.

As regards whether an afternoon place is ok, it really depends on the child. Mine is pretty tired by the afternoon as she doesn't sleep enough at night so it wouldn't work for her, but others are fine.

[Lubblymummy]

Hi. Our son did his first year at MC as a 3 year old afternoon Caterpillar. We too were a bit apprehensive before he started, but we need not have been. The staff are absolutely amazing and our son was and is extremely happy there. If a child is struggling, the teachers certainly communicate that to parents and I'm sure would suggest a workable solution (e.g. having a pre-lunch nap). For his first year we only sent our son 3 afternoons a week with the idea that he would nap on the other days, and for him this worked well, although we probably could have upped this in the summer term. The mornings at MC (as with any good pre-school) are very popular and so there is less flexibility on reducing the number of days if you wanted/needed to. We now actually have a morning place, but we are glad we did it this way round. Go for it - MC is amazing!

[TheFruityTreeNursery]

Hi

The Fruity Tree Nursery is an Ofsted registered pre-school on Malwood Road offering a high quality EYFS curriculum, and we have morning places available in September. Brought to you by the same team behind Fruity Tunes, The Fruity Tree Nursery has a specialism in early years music education. Our children also enjoy ballet, languages and Playball as part of our curriculum.

We'd love to show you around - please feel free to make an appointment to come and visit us with your daughter.

admin@fruitytree.co.uk

FruityTreeLogo.jpg (24.62 KiB) Viewed 1491 times

Malwood Road, London SW12 8EN
Tel. 020 8675 2473

[Polster21]

Hi. Our son did his first year at MC as a 3 year old afternoon Caterpillar. We too were a bit apprehensive before he started, but we need not have been. The staff are absolutely amazing and our son was and is extremely happy there. If a child is struggling, the teachers certainly communicate that to parents and I'm sure would suggest a workable solution (e.g. having a pre-lunch nap). For his first year we only sent our son 3 afternoons a week with the idea that he would nap on the other days, and for him this worked well, although we probably could have upped this in the summer term. The mornings at MC (as with any good pre-school) are very popular and so there is less flexibility on reducing the number of days if you wanted/needed to. We now actually have a morning place, but we are glad we did it this way round. Go for it - MC is amazing!

Thank you. Sending our daughter 3 afternoons a week might be a good plan initially - did you get a fee reduction for this and if so, can I ask what it was? Just trying to work out logistics for me as I'm a working mum! Thanks for all your comments, very helpful.

[Polster21]

Hi. Our son did his first year at MC as a 3 year old afternoon Caterpillar. We too were a bit apprehensive before he started, but we need not have been. The staff are absolutely amazing and our son was and is extremely happy there. If a child is struggling, the teachers certainly communicate that to parents and I'm sure would suggest a workable solution (e.g. having a pre-lunch nap). For his first year we only sent our son 3 afternoons a week with the idea that he would nap on the other days, and for him this worked well, although we probably could have upped this in the summer term. The mornings at MC (as with any good pre-school) are very popular and so there is less flexibility on reducing the number of days if you wanted/needed to. We now actually have a morning place, but we are glad we did it this way round. Go for it - MC is amazing!

Thank you. Sending our daughter 3 afternoons a week might be a good plan initially - did you get a fee reduction for this and if so, can I ask what it was? Just trying to work out logistics for me as I'm a working mum! Thanks for all your comments, very helpful.

[Lubblymummy]

From what i remember we paid for the number of afternoons we attended. Mornings are different I think as they are so popular that kids need to go every day (or at least you have to pay for 5 days even if you don't use them). It would be worth talking to the administrator Miss Sue about it. She's brilliant and I'm sure will be able to help.