Is pre-school and nursery the same thing?

[Sunlover00]

This is probably a very stupid question but I often hear reference to pre schools, nurseries and nursery schools -are they all the same thing??

Thanks in advance for any clarification anyone can provide

[mrs f]

my basic understanding is that a nursery or day nursery is 'childcare' ( this is not to say they don't 'teach') and generally open longer for working hours etc

pre-school (or nursery school?) is generally a shorter day say 9-3 and more set up to teach either in montessori method or more mainstream (if that's the term)

I'm sure there is a better explanation out there!

[sunbob]

Aside from the technical descriptions, I think that what each means to your child is v important/useful aswell.

When we had to move our daughter from nursery to preschool for financial reasons, it was extremely useful to be able to sell the move to her as a necessary and exciting progression now she was bigger to "preschool". Similarly, we were lucky enough to get a school nursery place and wanted to take it and luckily she was desperate to go to big school, so a nursery in a big school was very pleasing for her!

[Sunlover00]

Brill thanks for all that!

[etta166]

Also, many day nurseries do have a "pre-school" section for 3-4 year olds, as well as day care for younger children.