Apple Nursery, Newton Post Reply

[canberratobattersea]

Hello there!

Our family will be moving from Australia to London in December 2013 for work. After assessing places to live, we are pretty keen to live in the Battersea / Between the Commons area.

I would like my son who will be 3 and a half year old in January to start nursery in January 2014. We do understand that waiting lists into private nurseries and reception can be lengthy. But we did get an offer into Apple Nursery, Newton Pre Prep. Has anyone sent their children there, and if yes, how is it like? I have not really seen 'reviews' on the Apple / Newton, but it does look like a really nice school.

Also, my other question is; is it common for children to attend a full day(up to 3.00PM)? I know this is silly, but I just would like to know that I'm not the only one sending my son to nursery full day..

Looking forward to hear your thoughts...Thank you!

[Tils1]

I dont know the nursery sorry but most nursery pre-schools run either a three hour morning or afternoon slot with some of the older children maybe doing one or two fuller days before they start school. Day care is obviously different.
Good luck in making a choice.

[Bubs]

My daugher had a place, but we settled on elsehwere in the end. It's a cute nursery, quite international with some locals so you won't be the only ex-pat I'm sure.

They've had some building work done which has meant that the gorgeous play area they once had is no longer, but they do still have a courtyard andf I think plans to build a new nursery playground.
Traffic from BTC over that way can be super busy in the mornings, so you may want to live more toward Battersea Park for ease of commute. But people do travel in from BTC.

9-3 is about right I think. My daughter was young in her year so went to full-time school at just over 4 yrs old. She'd been doing daycare from 8-5 before that though, so was pretty used to it.

I think by 3.5 lots of kids would do full days, especially in a private nursery. You could ask the regsistrar at Newton, she's so helpful and has provided really useful ad-hoc info like that for me in the past (even gave me an idea of areas where others in our class were coming in from when I was worried about commute / lack of local feel).

[canberratobattersea]

Thank you for the information. I really appreciate it. Would you recommend any private /independent nurseries around the Battersea area?

[Bubs]

We used Bridge Lane, and I've heard Bluebells is lovely (it started up as my DD left nursery). Both v close to Newton.
There are lots more BTC too, so depends whereabouts you end up living x

[Kaptainette]

Hi canberratobattersea,

My husband and I moved from Sydney to London (between the commons) with our 2 y.o. In April. We have found it a great place to live with our little one! Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions about being an Aussie newcomer to the area

Our son goes to nursery one day a week 9-5.30. Most of the other kids arrive before him and leave after him, so full days seem to be the norm. I can't offer any insight into reception/ school as we plan to move back to Oz before school starts.

I found it easy to get him a place at nursery because it was a newly opened nursery.

Anyway, good luck with your preparations for the big move!

[blondie]

Blundells Day Nursery in Battersea is brilliant! the staff have been there for years and it has a really homely caring feel. Do take a look, I have been absolutely delighted - all of my children attended and the standard of teaching is first class. http://www.blundellsnursery.co.uk

[number28]

Hi CtoB,

we did the move from sydney some years back, but you seem much more organised than us! I agree with Bubs - don't underestimate the shocking traffic from BTC/Battersea to Newton Prep, it's not like the 15 minutes of queues on Northbourne in the mornings. It's worth finding a nursery/school in walking distance, usually the easiest way despite the weather. London is really a collection of villages connected by 300 year old cart tracks, with bottlenecks at every river crossing.

Lots of nurseries do 3hour sessions, though school-day length ones are fairly common too, but not usually every day at that age. Long day care-type nurseries generally do pre-school type activities as well. Really depends on your little man's nap needs, and how often you want to do the school-run.

Parkgate House is a lovely nursery and school, the Willow gets good raps, you probably already know about catchment areas for the "good" BTC state schools, and it's probably worth phoning any other nurseries you're interested in often during the first week of september, as places can come up (generally to start in January) when they know who's actually turned up at the start of the academic year. Happy to chat anytime if you have more questions - good luck!

[canberratobattersea]

Thank you all for your replies and very helpful information. We are close to registering lil one into apple nursery but still have not made a decision! It's hard when you aren't familiar with the area! We sort of thought that Newton is close to the trains so it would be easier for the husband to do the nursery runs in the morning. Again, thank you for all your help,this is a really great community forum. I'm glad we choose to live in the battersea area!oxox