Book nursery - how many days a week?

I currently have Friday off. When I go back after my youngest I’ll be taking a Monday off instead. We lose a lot of money as nursery is closed bank holidays and we still have to pay, plus for every bank holiday I work I get a day deducted from holiday (I think this is the case in most work places, also a corporate job) with this it also means my week leave is dictated by the BH as I’d never have full amount. Plus eldest at school so helps with inset days. Just food for thought. X

It’s worth thinking of the bank holidays if you put them into nursery on a Monday as you will have to pay for them regardless. Could you work Tuesday-Friday and have a long weekend off. X

I work for the NHS and dropped to 4 days after having my son. When I spoke to the nursery they said I could just put down the whole week until nearer the time when I could let them know what days were dropping or changing but it secured his place (I secured it 6 months before he started). He started nursery a week after his 1st birthday. He did 3 settling in sessions too. He currently goes Monday, Tues, Thurs (full days) & Friday morning (my mum has him Friday PM) I decided on a Wednesday off work and I’ve loved having it off! It breaks the week up perfectly too and also breaks up nursery for my son. I have one mum friend who has Monday+Tuesdays off work and another with Friday off so it does vary :) x

I work Tues - Friday. Monday is a great day to have off as you get back any bank holidays that fall on your non working day as annual leave and most bank holidays fall on a Monday!

As others have said if you work part time having a Monday off gets your more holiday

I opted for working 6hrs a day, 5 days a week, with my first. I pick her up before 4, which allows us to spend a little time together before the evening meal.

More people do take Friday off in my experience. However, there aren't as many groups on a Friday, weirdly (maybe they're taking Friday off too? Haha). Wednesday is another popular day too and there are usually a lot of groups. You'll always find new mum friends with the same day off as you, no matter which day it is.

In terms of work hours, I already worked 4 longer days anyway when I was full time. So I just dropped one of them and worked 3 long days (3 x 9hrs). It makes childcare more affordable as we essentially paid for 1 less day than i worked in terms of hours. Is longer days over 4 days something you would be able to do to keep being full time?

Definitely consider the Monday because if they're entitled to funded hours they don't apply to BH, so on BH Mondays you get charged the full price for a day that they're not even open. We didn't realise this and got stung! So we switched his Monday out!

Fory baby currently we've reserved the full week though until nearer the time when she starts (October this year)

@Kita yes, this is why I chose Monday and Friday as my days off. I didn't want to be paying for 8 days over the year that I wasn't even getting! Plus because I work longer hours I have to use some of my annual leave to make up the shortfall in leave (you only get 7.5hrs as your bank holiday no matter how long you work, the rest is annual leave) so it's a bit of a p take really. My daughter's school is usually shut on the Friday rather than Monday, so Fridays off works for us too x

I wish I’d known this but it was too late to change the days by the time I’d found out! It is a p take, completely agree! Then if you work school hours you still get a day leave taken even though for some a day is 8 hours! Annual leave should be taken in hours I think! X

@Kita ah, see my work it does work in hours, but you only get the proportionate number of hours added for your bank holiday to your leave. So if you work 2/3 then you get 2/3 hours (so 5 hours) - which would make working a Monday even worse if part time 🤦🏼‍♀️

Thank you all, this is so so helpful!!