Which nursery to pick

[Raonaid]

Which nurseries, in your opinion are good. I am considering looking to enroll my 3 year old come August in a Thurso nursery . What makes a good nursery? Should I wait until my child is 4? Would I be allowed to visit them before enrolling? Sorry lots of questions, can anyone help?

[mums angels]

They all have open days as far as i am aware they are usually advertised in the paper or i am sure the schools will know soon when they are on . I put my last two to Playden nursery when they were 3 and the Three bears when they were 4 but have heard good things about all the local nurseries .

[marlyn]

you should find that in the next few weeks all the nurserys will have open days or afternoon so that you can have a visit to get a feel for them, it will be advertised in the John o Groat Journal.

From personal experience I can highly recommend Croileagan - the gaelic nursery in the grounds of Mount Pleasant school, both of my girls went there and really loved it.

[unicorn]

You can check out their grades and inspection reports online at the care commission website.

[Brodar]

I would also recommend Croileagan. My son goes there and the staff are excellent. Really good nursery.

[Loraine]

I can highly recommend Rainbow Rascals and Three Bears Nursery. Staff are lovely and my daughter loved going to both places. :D

[simpsoney]

I can also highly recomend Croilegan. My daughter loves it there!

[ShelleyCowie]

I would just recommend going to some open days of the nurseries that interest you, get to know the staff and what your child will be doing for the year in the class.

Ask if there are any field trips, what they will teach them (like basic letters and numbers) also have a look around the classroom, see what kind of toys there are. Toys are ice-breakers for kids and some help with their development :)

Thats what i will be looking for when Athrun goes to nursery (not for another few years yet). But my OH's other 2 sons went to pennyland nursery and both enjoyed it immensly. The staff were brilliant and very easy for the children to talk to if they were upset.

Hope that helps :Razz

[Vistravi]

I too would say to go to the opening days with your child. Your child will get to see the nursery and you will get to have a good look at them all, see their policies and meet the staff.

I work in a ness nursery and children can start anytime as we can have children from 6 weeks to 10 years old. Parents and their child meet the nursery manager and deputy manager first and one of them usually the manager shows them around the nursery. The parents are shown every room (we have 7 rooms as well as 2 dining rooms, one for the babies and tweenies and one for both todder rooms, pre-school and afterschool club.) Parents and their child meet the staff who are in the rooms and find out what their child will be doing in each room and what the general routine is. Parents also get to see our three outdoor tarmaced(sp) gardens and will be told where the parent parking is.

Just go and visit the nurseries and find out! Most of them will let you visit while the other children are there as well once you decide that it is where you want your child to go. This helps your child see the nursery once again and see it in the natural environment it was build for.

[pops]

I would recommend Mount Pleasant Nursery. the staff are lovely and friendly, and i find the nursery to be nice, bright and welcoming.

but you should just visit the nurseries on their open days and see what you think would be best for your child

[travelling man]

I would agree about Mount Pleasant Nursery. There's a lovely atmosphere there and the staff are excellent. My daughters have both gone there and they love it. They're always doing different things and the girls have made lots of progress. I looked at the Gaelic playgroup but couldn't see the point of them learning bits and pieces of gaelic when we've no real interest in the language and I thought they would be better at a school nursery.

[changilass]

Go to open days and talk to parents, don't go by inspection reports - they don't always tell the whole truth.