At what age should a child go to nursery?
Deciding when to send your child to nursery is a deeply personal choice, often influenced by work commitments, financial factors, your home support network and your little one’s development. There is no one right answer for everyone as every child and family set up is different.
At Wibli Wobli we accept younger babies, but generally children start from around 6-12 months when many parents first go back to work. Babies may adjust more easily to a new environment if they are introduced at an early age. We work in partnership with parents and carers to ensure that babies feel comfortable in their new nursery environment. We choose their key worker based on who they bond with the most and speak with parents to find out your babie’s interests and routines before they start. We love to include elements of home in the nursery and vice versa, for example putting up family pictures on the nursery walls and encouraging parents to show pictures and videos of the nursery at home.
Ultimately, the best age depends on your child’s temperament and the quality of the nursery. A nurturing, stimulating setting with experienced caregivers can support healthy development at any age. It is important to look for nurseries that not only provide physical safety and an age-appropriate environment, but also focus on emotional bonding, have nurturing staff and provide a homely environment with lots of stimulating and well-thought out activities.
You will need to consider both your child and your family’s needs and routines. Whether returning to work or looking to give your baby more social exposure, trust your instincts and choose what feels right for your child’s growth and happiness. Quality care, no matter the age, makes all the difference.
I DON’T SPEAK WELSH and why that shouldn’t stop you from choosing a Welsh nursery
We always get a LOT of questions about the Welsh aspect of our nursery. Here are our top questions and answers for you:
Q: Do all of our children come from Welsh speaking families ?
A: Absolutely NOT ! In fact, most of our children come from no Welsh background at all.
Q: Will going to a Welsh speaking nursery hold my child back with their English ?
A: NO. Learning another language actually enhances your language processing ability, including your native tongue, so it will enhance their ability to process and learn English.
Q: My child will be going to an English school. Why should I put them in a Welsh language nursery if they aren’t going to be continuing in Welsh school ?
A: There are so many benefits to learning another language at a young age. Cognitive benefits such as critical thinking, flexible thinking, creativity, the ability to process your native tongue and other languages in the future. It certainly does no harm to be exposed to another language even if for a temporary amount of time.
Q: My child already speaks two languages fluently. Will they get confused ?
A: Not at all. A few of our children speak more than one language and have no problems picking up Welsh – Italian, Portuguese, Polish, French and Malayalam to name a few ! Bilingual children tend to pick up Welsh even more easily than monolingual children.
Q : I don’t speak Welsh. Does that matter ?
A : Not at all. Most of our parents don’t speak Welsh.
Q : I would like to learn Welsh. Can you help ?
A : Absolutely. We regularly post Welsh learning phrases and words via our nursery app for parents to interactive with. We also run free Welsh sessions for adults at the nursery and through Clwb Cwtsh exclusively for Wibli Wobli parents and carers. We can also signpost you to free adult learning courses and events in the area and are more than happy to speak Welsh with you at the setting.
Q : Are you still running Welsh baby toddler sessions (Ti a Fi) ?
A : Yes. We run ad hoc Ti a Fi sessions at the nursery and we will be running a block of weekly Ti a Fi baby sessions at the nursery starting in May. There will be a limited number of spaces on the course, keep an eye out for when the sessions are announced to book.
Tax-free childcare – government help from 0 years old !
We are always surprised about how many working parents think they are not entitled to any government help until their child turns 3. In fact, the tax free childcare scheme can be used for childcare costs of children from 0 months where the government pays 20% of your childcare invoices !! You can use it to pay approved childcare providers- this includes nurseries like Wibli Wobli but also childminders, after school or breakfast clubs and holiday clubs.
Similar to the 30 hours childcare offer, you both need to be working for a minimum of 16 hours per day and earn less than £100,000 gross each per year. You also cannot claim both tax free childcare and Universal Credit or childcare vouchers.
It is very simple and usually takes 24 hours or so to get started. To check you are eligible and set up your account, just go to : https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-
Once set up you can search for Wibli Wobli Nursery NP10 8BD, add money into the account whilst the government contributes £2 for every £8 you pay in (20% of your childcare bills), and click to pay monies to Wibli Wobli. You can even add your tax free childcare account to Famly so that to pay the nursery invoice you just click to pay on Famly and it automatically takes the funds from your tax free childcare account. Easy peasy !
Can someone PLEASE explain how the 30 hours childcare offer works !! When will the 15 hours funding for my 9 month old start ??
There is a lot of confusion about what the 30 hours childcare offer actually is and a lot of conflicting information available! No wonder at Wibli Wobli we receive questions like these all the time.
The Childcare Offer for Wales is for children aged 3-4 years old. It starts the term after they turn three (this is September- Autumn term, January- Spring term, or April- Summer term).
To be eligible you, and if applicable your partner, must :
-work at least 16 hours per week (with some exceptions eg. maternity leave or in education)
-earn under £100k gross per year
Funding is during 48 weeks of the year (4 weeks are unfunded).
During term time it is up to 20 childcare offer hours and 10 education hours.
During holidays there is 30 childcare offer hours.
The sessions are NOT necessarily free ! The government narrative is misleading. In Wales settings can charge up to £10.80 per day on top of the funded sessions for consumables (such as meals, snacks, nappies and additional activities).
The childcare offer hours can be used up in approved childcare providers – nurseries, childminders, playgroups registered with CIW.
The education hours can only used up in specific nurseries, such as Wibli Wobli, running as an education provider or in state primary schools. Check with your provider if they are an education setting.
Note that England runs a completely different system (families can apply for funding from 9 months and for 38 weeks of the year only).
To help parents and carers, we have put together this handy Wibli Wobli guide all about the 30 hours childcare offer and what this means for your childcare costs :
Will there be funding from age 2 in Wales ?
Wales currently offers funding via the childcare offer from the term after your child turns 3 years. Frustratingly, in England funding starts from 9 months. The good new is Wales are now looking to start funding from an earlier age – but what exactly is the plan ?
Wales have been running their flagship program “Flying Start” for some time. The original purpose was to provide free childcare for a few hours per day to children from deprived areas and to provide them with additional resources and support to even the playing field through enhanced childcare provision. Many parents or carers using the service were out of work so the 2.5 hours per day worked well as children could be dropped off and collected around the sessions. Following the success of the scheme for its original purpose, the government now wants to roll out the flying start service across all areas.
You will have up to 5 x 2.5 hour sessions free per week (different areas vary as to whether you can use more than one session in a day. In Newport you can have up to 2 sessions per day).
Traditional Flying Start settings are open for 2.5 hours per day during the week and you will need to drop off and collect your child to attend the session.
Some private nurseries now offer Flying Start and allow you to pay for additional hours around the 2.5 hour sessions. For example at Wibli Wobli you can attend half day or full day sessions (8am-6pm), and your free flying start sessions are then deducted from your invoice.
All settings need to offer the free term time only Flying Start sessions as an option, but these are extremely limited. You may therefore be waiting for some time before you are allocated a free place.
When will this be rolled out to all areas ? It is not clear when the next areas will be included but the final Phase 3 starts in April 2025 so presumably any time soon!
Which is better – nursery or childminder?
The short answer is – both! There are pros and cons to both options and the right solution for you and your little one really depends on your individual child and family circumstances.
Nurseries tend to be open all year, longer opening hours and stay open even when staff are off sick or on holiday. Many settings, including Wibli Wobli, have CCTV cameras throughout the building for extra peace of mind. Nurseries also tend to have a more structured environment with more children that enables children to develop their social, emotional and learning skills and offers a smoother transition into a school environment. On the flipside nurseries tend to be more expensive as their operating costs are much greater“ in particular staff wages and higher rent.
Childminders tend to be cheaper and can be more flexible with hours, they also typically care for much fewer children at once, allowing for more one-to-one attention with your little one.
Whichever option you decide you should visit the setting first to get a feel for the place. Consider taking your little one with you so that you can guage their reaction and try and involve them in the decision. To book a visit at Wibli Wobli to see if our set up is perfect for your little one you can get in touch here:
Mealtimes at nursery
Mealtimes at nursery are a fantastic opportunity for children to explore, socialise and learn. We are very passionate about food here at Wibli Wobli and have an onsite nursery cook who prepares healthy and nutritious meals on site, and caters for all allergies and dietary requirements. You can see our menu here: (). we have a three week rolling menu and then on the final week of the month we travel around the world to explore a new cuisine !
Like most nurseries we follow a structured routine with set meals and snack times. At Wibli Wobli we have breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, tea. And access to fruit and water throughout the day.
For our younger children, we have an adapted menu for our babis and babis bach (see here). Mealtimes are a chance for them to explore different tastes and textures and to widen their palates. Staff work with children and their parents through the weaning process, and are trained to gently encourage reluctant eaters without forcing – the main focus is always on making mealtimes positive and fun for everyone.
For our older children, as well as exploring foods we also encourage children to serve themselves “family-style” with adult support, which builds up their independence and fine motor skills.
We are currently taking part in the Gwent Public Healthy Eating scheme and will be putting in place some exciting healthy food related activities involving our staff, children and parents as part of this project.
Overall, mealtimes at Wibli Wobli are designed to be calm, sociable and enjoyable experiences that support children’s development, build their confidence up and encourage a healthy relationship with food and culture. This sets the stage for them to maintain healthy eating habits throughout their lives !