Choosing The Right Nursery For Us

As I am sure many of you know if you have read my blog previously Jess goes to nursery full time and has done since September.  She was a year old when she actually went into childcare that she did not go earlier was the fact that I had to wait for the start of the next academic year to be able to continue my studies.

I made the choice after Jess was born that I wanted to return back to university to finish my degree at this stage I had already completed 2 years. I think I was 3 weeks of returning to complete my final year when Jess was born if you don't know we were thinking about getting her adopted it was not until I saw her for the first time I realised that I could not longer do it.

It was about this time last year when I heard back from York St John telling me that I had a place there to complete the rest of my degree. I transferred from Chester as there was no way I could look after a one-year-old with no support from my family while I would be in the final year. Hull was the ideal option for me as I do not live that far from the campus told me I would have to start again completely and do all 3 years where York St John told me that I could just do two years and graduate.

Then came the problem thatYork St John, unlike some university, did not have a nursery which Jess could attend which mean that I had to research where Jess would be going when I had lectures.
The first issue did I have her in a nursery in Hull or York. I could have had her at nursery in Hull which would have meant that Jess would not have to commute with me every single day, however, if I had a 9 am lecture it means I have to get the train at 7 am and nurseries do not open before 7 am. This would have meant my mum would have had to drop her off which would not have been fair.Also, should Jess become ill it meant that I would have to leave university and have to travel an hour home before I could pick her up this is not something I would have wanted. Looking back and seeing how many times she has been sent home since starting I think she has been sent home around 3 times which could have cause problems should she have been based in Hull.

When I decided that she was going to have to commute to York with me this means me googling nursery because I had no clue where the nursery where and I needed them in the city centre because I needed to be able to drop Jess off easy. I started emailing nursery and could not believe that some of them had huge waiting lists of around 6 months I think I was told.

I found two nurseries which would have been suitable locations I would recommend going to visit them because you can a feel of the nursery make sure go when the children are in as you can see how it is every single day.By visiting them we found that we liked one a lot more than the other due to the fact that in the nursery she is in the under 2's are actually allowed to go and play in their outside session whereas at the other nursery they did not have an outdoor section which means they had to take them on walks to get fresh air and they were not available to play out.  Being able to go outside is something which Jess now loves as you know so this is a huge benefit she can play out.

Another thing which swung it for us it the fact that she actually gets her meals included in the price of a day which may sound really stupid to some people but when you are paying around the £45 mark and it does not include food it meant that it was going to be another £2 for food per day which we was in it means that it soon adds up. For us both of the nurseries which we looked are were going to include wipes however, we have to provide the nappies and any cream which we want to use on Jess. We also have to provide suncream in the summer months as well.

Another factor which put me off the other nursery which we did not choose was that the under 2's would have been upstairs which for some of you may not seem a huge issue but when you do not have a lot of time in a morning.  The last thing you want to have to do is go to another room which is full of children. Also they did not have a separate sleep room which meant that when the nursery put them down to sleep it was basically like putting them on yoga mats which is something which did not please me massively. I love that Jess has a variety of rooms to play in and I always find her in a different one. The staff at the nursery are amazing and help so much like they even said to me that if I didn't want her to make a Father's Day card with Joe been away she could just do a picture.

Hopefully, this post is helped you if you are looking for nursery to send your little one. These are just some things which helped me decide which nursery we sent Jess to and I love our nursery so if your looking for one in the York area let me know and I will tell you which one it is

Do you have any tips for helping choose a nursery?

Charlotte x