#2 - Nurseries
Welcome to your Nursery Phase :)
This is how I navigated the Ealing Nursery Scene.
It was another deep dive into yet a new topic that took hours to research and wasn’t as straightforward as I’d imagined but maybe that’s just me.
So, there I was, December 2020, heavily pregnant, cruising the internet searching for the nursery I would entrust my future little angel with ….ha! Little did I know!
Covid made it extra special, you know, being confined to your computer screen and not being able to see anything or anyone in person.
A year later, once restrictions were finally dropped, after having compared reviews, fees and locations etc… I mustered up the energy to visit a grand total of... three! Yes, three! Because honestly by that point, I was exhausted, mentally, physically… I couldn’t take her anywhere with me where I needed to concentrate or listen to the words coming out of another humans mouth, She was NOT a chilled baby …so every time I went to a visit I’d have to leave her with a family member so I could fully focus on the task at hand.
Choosing between a childminder and a nursery wasn’t easy, partly because I didn’t have enough experience…. I actually didn’t even know what a childminder was or the difference between a nanny /mothers help etc, a lot of googling was done and eventually I settled on ‘nursery roulette’.
Cybertots was a little chaotic in my opinion but had great outdoor space … I then went to visit CMN Montessori West Ealing, where the children were so well-behaved and seemed content, outside space wasn’t the best but I figured she’d only be going part time and the weather here is mostly crap. Plus they incorporated French into the curriculum and the food was cooked on site.
Fees there were decent and Buttercups had a waiting list of like 2/3 yrs. So that was my decision made.
Next hurdle was knowing how many hours to apply for? How many days? Would my child even settle? I decided on 4 half days and was swiftly added to the uncertain 1-year waiting list.
Sure enough my daughter got a place just shy of her 2nd birthday.
As the months went by, with each passing day, I morphed into a zombie.
My daughter's nursery schedule started to slowly expand… 4 days turned into 5, then a mix of half days and 1 full day.
Her naps stopped a few months before her 3rd birthday which prompted the addition of the full day. All Winter days + no nap makes mummy a dull girl.... ( that’s from the Shining)
And oh, the promise of new mum friends! How delightful :)
this has not been the case. Not for me anyway, and it’s been a year.
* Edit (I do have a few lovely mum friends now and there’s a Whatsapp group for the nursery parents but very few meet ups, hence why I thought I’d set up MLM)
Perhaps it was because I was sending her part time and most mums send their children full time so I didn’t get to see them at pick up and the only interaction I had with the others was the few brief moments at pick up.
They used to do more events for the parents but once Covid hit everything changed.
A lot of the mums work full time too which is something I have not been able to do and definitely ALL have their plates full, juggling all sorts and trying to keep it together.
Finally my advice would be to not obsess over Ofsted reports.
Outstanding Vs Good, chances are a Good rating is fine.
The true test of a nursery is your gut feeling, so cliche but true .
If you visit the nursery yourself and observe the children and speak to whoever’s showing you around you’ll know how it makes you feel.
Trust me, you'll know when you've found "the one"... or at least the one that doesn't make you want to run screaming for the hills.
Good luck!