London - Post Report Question and Answers
Are preschools available? Day care? Are these expensive? What has been your experience with them, if any? Do the schools provide before- and/or after-school care?
Yes, many but expensive. - Jan 2024
Yes, and you'll pay out the nose for your kids to go to school in the basement of church.... we pay $16,000 a year for my son to go to school for three hours a day. They also have lots of breaks, average of one week off a month, so you need to have a secondary plan if you want to send your kids to school so you can work. - May 2022
All 3 to 4-year-olds in England can get 570 hours of free early education or childcare per year. It’s usually taken as 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year. Check www.gov.uk to find out current options and eligibility. Daycare is available, but expensive. Our son's primary school does provide before- and after-school care, and our daughter's secondary school is open early and stays open late, with the library available for use. - Jun 2017
Day care is quite expensive, probably on par with DC. - Feb 2017
Yes. - Feb 2016
Yes, but very expensive. - Jun 2015
There are many preschools/daycares available. But they are ridiculously expensive and can become more so if the exchange rate is bad. - Jun 2015
Many daycare options, though most will not take a child until they are 6 months or older. They are all very expensive and, honestly, not that impressive. Most embassy families seem to sponsor live-in nannies, though there are many rules surrounding that. Childcare has been the most difficult part of being here for us. They do no require vaccines at schools/daycares on the local economy. - May 2015
Our son went to a Montessori school for a half day. You pretty much have to sell a kidney to pay for preschool in London. It was over US$1,000 a month for 3 hours a day and they took really long breaks each quarter. Ugh. - Aug 2014
I don't have personal experience with it, but have heard there are a lot of options...for a price! - Jan 2012
I know there is plenty of care available, but I do not have preschool age children and therefore cannot comment on the quality. - Feb 2008
