1) Location
As with house hunting…location, location, location will always be one of the most important tick boxes on your list when searching for the right nursery! Whether you need a nursery that is on your doorstep or one on route to work to fit in with your daily commute and work schedule, location will play a big part of your initial decision making. Often the nursery you choose will also feed into your choice of primary schools and therefore can have a much bigger impact on their future in years to come. Both nursery hunting and house hunting from a locality perspective can play a massive role in this. Even more pressure on us parents to make the right decision!
Having moved recently from our first home of twelve years into a new area with our daughter’s future in mind, we have gone through the ups and downs of searching for the right house, alongside the right nursery, and location with both was at the top of our list!
2) First Impressions
Choosing the right nursery is just like viewing houses when you are ready to embark on this journey and trust me you will need to view a few to compare what you like and what you don’t like with each and will need to explore the options available before you make that all important decision for your little one’s bright future.
First impressions count and will be an important consideration when both house hunting and nursery searching. Such as how the property looks from the outside as you approach the building, to how light the rooms are, how clean and tidy it is when you walk around the premises, to how each room looks and makes you feel when you visit the property or nursery for the first time. These will all be things that you will need to strongly mull over before making your final selection.
As the saying goes, you often only get one chance to make a great first impression!
3) Space & Layout
Whether needing to get back to work or wanting some uninterrupted time to focus on your house duties or just some quality you time, nursery ultimately provides a childcare solution for your little one to grow and flourish within the right supportive environment. The overall space the nursery has for your child to explore both inside and outside with the external facilities and the layout of the rooms can play another factor in your decision making.
Just like when searching for your next family home, the overall internal and outside space, layout and flow of the living space, will all be on your tick list to try and accommodate. I’ve personally got an obsession with light in properties and how it can make you feel immediately when you walk in. For example, dark and dull corridors, limited windows, and a lack of natural light was an immediate turn-off for us personally when considering nursery options. You will know your child better than anyone, so you will have a gauge of the sort of environment that they will be happy in!
There is a funny story on this note about nurseries and strong-willed babies to ask me about if we do get the chance to meet!
4) Investment vs Return
Deciding to put your child into a nursery is not only a big decision but also a big financial commitment for your family and let’s be honest, sometimes this can be as much as a second mortgage for most families. Therefore, it has got to warrant the right return versus the monthly investment. Ultimately, similar to choosing your forever family home, you have got to be comfortable that you are making a sound investment for your family and children’s future.
Although we cannot comment on the nursery front regarding the investment versus the return for you and your family, we can certainly advise on the property front, so for any advice on how to maximise your properties end value or any general advice on prices, the current market, or projected future end values if you are thinking of extending for example, just speak to a member of our team who will be more than happy to help.
5) Team
Whether choosing the right estate agent to work with to help sell your biggest asset or to help you find your next dream home, or looking for the right nursery, the staff and team of people who will be looking after you or your little one will play a huge factor in deciding which is the right nursery or estate agents that you trust enough to work with.
With most nurseries now, children are often assigned a key worker who will be responsible for your child’s development on their own little learning adventure. From the relationship you have with the key worker to the way the nursery seems to be run, to the management team and how friendly and informative the staff are when they greet you at the door are all things parents will consider as part of their decision-making process. You will go through the same thought process when selecting the right estate agent to work with when you begin the moving process.
If you’ve recently sold a property or are getting ready to sell yours, it is worth bearing in mind that whichever estate agent you decide to work with, you will be working with them for better or for worse, in most cases for a minimum of twelve weeks, and this can be a lot longer from start to finish once you’ve sold and are waiting to get to the all-important finish line….This can be twenty weeks plus on average (if you’re lucky and your agent is on the ball!).
The difference with nursery, is the relationship is going to last much longer to the point where they are ready for pre-school, so if you are anything like myself, taking your time to find the right one is fundamental to getting off to a flying start and getting them settled into the right nursery as opposed to swapping and changing. This is another aspect high up on the priority list when searching for the right one!
6) Reputation
Whether choosing the right estate agent to work with to sell your biggest asset or choosing the right nursery for your tot, can both be a very daunting and stressful time and whoever you decide to appoint, you are taking a big leap of faith into the unknown!
With lots of options available these days, how can you make sure you choose the right one? Of course, there are obvious things such as the nurseries recent and historic performance and ratings with Ofsted, parent reviews, local reputation, how happy the children look going in and coming out of the nursery and so on. Researching the nurseries reputation thoroughly, along with their Facebook pages and getting a general feel for the nurseries core values can help massively with the all-important decision-making process.
Social proofing is a big advantage these days in helping to guide consumers to make better informed decisions on which companies to choose, so we are not going in completely blind! Online Google Reviews and Facebook reviews, along with word-of-mouth advertising from personal recommendations from recent sellers and buyers and other parents, can all help to steer you in the right direction.
7) Wish List
As with house hunting, nursery hunting is the same in the sense that perfection in either doesn’t exist! You will never be able to accommodate all your tick boxes, so working out and deciding which aspects you can compromise on versus those you can’t is a worthwhile exercise to do early on.
A good friend of mine who is a mum of two stressed to me when we felt as though we were never going to find the right nursery, that once you’ve narrowed the search down, it really is a case of picking your overall favourite as you won’t be 100% happy with any, as there will always be things in each of them that you wish you could change.
This is very true when it comes to house hunting, and we really do say it all the time in our office, that the perfect house doesn’t exist, so it is a case of accommodating your most important tick boxes and asking yourself two key questions…. One, can you see yourself living there? And two, what is your gut feeling telling you to do? If the two answers are yes, then you are almost there!
8) Gut Feeling
Like walking through the door of your new home for first time and getting that warm fuzzy feeling of tummy butterflies and feeling you can truly see yourself living there and being happy or getting that feeling of trust and relief when you find the right agent to represent your house sale, gut feeling on the right nursery for your little world cannot be underestimated and shouldn’t be ignored.
Most nurseries offer taster sessions, and this provides a good insight into all the above factors but also helps with your gut feeling on making a final decision. Like most things in life, gut feeling is never normally wrong, so trust your own intuition and we are sure you won’t go wrong!
Thank you for taking the time to read our latest blog and if you are new to the area and need some help researching local nurseries or considering an upcoming move, we’ve got you covered and would be delighted to help!
Please contact our friendly team on 01925 407210 for a no-obligation and confidential chat.
