Nursery or Child minder?

For us we chose nursery for 2 full days per week instead of childminder as we have no family to help out with childcare. If the childminder was ever sick or taking holidays then we’d also have to be off work. We viewed several nursery settings to decide which one was the right fit for us. Also in nursery they are with same age children, childminder is usually mixed. It’s completely personal preference though! I will say the wait lists for childcare are huge where I live. I secured our place in Jan 2024 for her to start in November 2024. Some of the places we viewed back in 24 had no spaces until 2025

I liked/like our nursery because it goes up to pre school age and follows the key stage learning and the ladies who work there rotate throughout the rooms so as she goes up the rooms in ages she will know most of the staff, she will meet kids she will potentially go to school with. The staff are lovely, the nursery is lovely when we looked around, the big one she loves going! I like that she gets the social interaction. She goes 2 days a week when I work :)

Mine went from 5 months so I wanted a child under so he’d be in a homely setting. He’s still with her and she is an absolute godsend. She has an 18 month old and a 2 year ld so I like that he’s with slightly older ones. I didn’t expect someone to take him out to loads of activities every day but she takes him to play groups 3 times a week which makes me feel easier about him not being in a nursery with lots of children. I will look into moving to a nursery when he’s older but I trust her completely so don’t want to disrupt that for now!