Did anyone not get a nursery place?

freddie_2

Just wondering if many people didnt get a place and whats the best thing to do now we havent got one.

mumoffour77

Are you talking about a free nursery place?

mumoffour77

Reason being if your child is 4 they are entitled to a nursery place, ring the education board regarding this you may be able to get your child into reception class, If your child is not 4 then some nurserys offer a private service, usually £5 per day from 9am to 12 noon, including a snack.

freddie_2

Child not 4, almost 3 but in final nursery year, will start p1 next year.

mumoffour77

Oh I thought that children had to be 2 and 10 months before they could start nursery!! But that didnt entitle them to a free nursery place?
As far as I can rem I paid for my children for the first year then they got their free places the 2nd year!!
All my children started nursery when they were 2&10months!

I also thought that in Northern Ireland a child could not start school unless their 5th birthday fell in that particular school year!
Reception class was if the child had just missed out on the 30th June cut off date!?

freddie_2

It depends on birthdays, DD will be 5 in the school year starting 2010 but not till the may.
So schoold year starting 2009 is her last free nursery year.
I have seen paying since 2+10 (more like 2+9) but she should have a free place next year but all nurserys are full and she didnt get a space.

mumoffour77

Ring the education board
If its SEELB the no is 90566200

Indigo's_Mum

How many choices did you put on your application? You can ring round the local nurseries directly, but if no joy then contact the Board.

I know of mums in the past who only put down 1 choice and didn't get their child in. As there were no other choices made on the form, the child wasn't placed anywhere and couldn't get a place even from the board. If there's no spaces, there's no spaces.

Try ringing round and even get on a few waiting lists.

freddie_2

All 4 choices were filled in and still nothing!

warmhands.coldheart

Don't mean to open a can of worms here but I believe there has been a bit of a hoo haa on Stephen Nolan show last week about Children from family's recieving Benifits getting preference over children with any form of Disability. Something to do with selection criteria!! (Oh back to the old Selection agruement!!) I would ask why this is the case.. Shouldn't all children be treated as equals no matter who they are or where they are from? Why should a child from a family recieving benifits be given preference over any other child? With such a big issue being made of children from "poorer" backgrounds not getting access to Grammar Schools then this is just hypocritical as the children from "poorer" families are getting preferential treatment with access to nursery places..

Discuss!! (And so the can of worms is opened!!)

Golden_Anemone

I think it has always been the case that a certain number of nursery places were prioritised for "welfare" cases. At least those were the words used by the principal of the nursery school that my youngest, now 16, went to. He was lucky enough to get a free full-time place because he was an August birthday so already 4 but the vast majority of full-time places went to children whose parents didn't work.

As a working single mum that full-time free place was an enormous help to me. I knew other mums who weren't able to take up part time places for their kids because they couldn't manage the leaving off and collecting with their jobs and who deeply resented the fact that mothers who could have had full time places for their children.

I know there's a lot more to nursery than child care and that arguably children from more deprived situations need it more than children from better off families but I think it's hard when children whose families are on the borderline miss out entirely because their parents have to work.