Three rooms for 0-1, 1-2 and 2-3 year olds, our own kitchen with a seasonal menu, and hours from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm for those who need them. September settling-in is done slowly and supported, with families inside the room for the first few days.
Visits happen while the school is running, not on an empty afternoon: you see what there is.
Each room has its own key educator for the whole year: the person who greets your child in September is the one who says goodbye in July.
very few places
Everyone on their own schedule: each baby eats and sleeps when they need to, not when the timetable says. Cots in a separate room, a changing area inside the room, and a daily note with feeds, nappies and naps.
13 places
The age of movement. Clear floor, wooden materials at their height, plenty of outdoor time and the first habits: the spoon, the cup, tidying what you take out and the nappy, when the child asks.
20 places
Three- or four-week projects that start from their own questions, toilet training without pressure, and a calm run-up to primary school, including a May visit to whichever school they're going to.
€8 for a one-off day
Cooked here every morning, with a seasonal menu posted on the 25th of the previous month. Allergies and intolerances with a medical report are cooked separately, at no extra cost. The babies' purées are made here too.
from €34 a month
From 7:30 to 9:00 am and from 4:00 to 5:30 pm, for anyone starting work early or finishing late. Booked by the month or used one day at a time, with a day's notice.
every day
Our own yard with sand, water and shade, plus four raised beds they plant and water themselves. We go out every day it isn't properly raining: in Gijón, waiting for sunshine means never going out.
Child-to-educator ratios are the ones set by your region's regulations. Write your exact figures here: it's one of the first things asked on a visit.
This is what happens between drop-off and pick-up. Babies in the 0-1 room follow their own rhythm, not this grid.
7:30
Open for anyone who has booked it. Low lights, breakfast if they haven't eaten at home, and quiet play in one room until nine.
9:00
The door stays open until 9:30 and you come in calmly: there are two minutes to tell the educator how they slept and anything worth knowing that day.
9:45
We count who's here, what the weather's doing and what today holds. Then fruit, held in the hand. This is when new words show up.
10:15
Painting, water, clay, stories or music, depending on the month's project. Nothing lasts longer than they can hold: if it's over in ten minutes, it's over.
11:15
Out to the yard in a raincoat if needed. Sand, water, trikes and the vegetable patch. The babies go out to the covered porch with their mat.
12:15
They eat what was cooked that morning. They feed themselves as soon as they can hold a spoon, even if they end up covered in it: that's part of learning too.
13:15
Mats, blinds down and quiet music. Anyone who doesn't sleep isn't made to lie there: they move next door with books.
15:15
A kitchen snack and then their own play, the kind they choose. This is when friendships appear, along with fights over the same toy truck.
16:00
Pick-up from 4:00 to 4:30 pm, or until 5:30 pm with extended hours. Every family leaves with a written note: what they ate, how long they slept and what happened today.
The monthly fee runs from September to July, eleven payments. Anything extra is written below, not in a footnote.
€245a month, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
No lunch. Pick-up before the meal, at 1:00 pm.
€330a month, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Lunch and nap included. Pick-up from 3:00 pm.
The most common
€395a month, 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Lunch, nap and afternoon snack. It's what most families have.
With morning and afternoon extended hours: €467 a month.
€32per full day, with lunch
To cover an emergency or a one-off working month, if there's space in the room.
ON TOP of the fee: a €120 registration once a year (covers the school accident insurance and all materials for the year: paints, paper, notebooks and the project books). Morning extended hours, 7:30 to 9:00 am: €38 a month or €4 for a single day. Afternoon extended hours, 4:00 to 5:30 pm: €34 a month or €4 for a single day. A one-off lunch for anyone not on the full-day fee: €8. Second sibling: 10% off the fee. Nappies and creams are brought by each family. If you're entitled to a regional subsidy or an employer childcare voucher, tell us at enrolment and we'll prepare whatever certificate they ask for.
September to July. Drop-off is flexible until 9:30 because a child who arrives in a rush has a bad morning.
Closed in August, at Christmas, at Easter and on local and regional public holidays. The full year calendar is handed out at enrolment and pinned to the noticeboard by the door. Replace these dates with your own.
El Nido was opened in 2013 by two educators who came from schools with twenty-five children per room. The idea was simple: fewer things per day and more time for each one, because a two-year-old who starts something and has to leave it half-done mainly learns that things get left half-done.
We work on projects that come from their own questions, with wooden and household materials before plastic, and with plenty of outdoor time. There are no worksheets and no homework. What there is: a written daily note and one termly tutorial with the key educator, plus any others a family asks for.
You won't see children's faces here, and that's deliberate. When you swap these for your own, do the same: materials, rooms, hands, details, or children from behind. It's what any serious centre does with a minor's data, and it saves you asking for and storing an image consent form from every family.
Straight answers: families come with very little time.
It takes one to two weeks and is done in small groups. On the first two days a family member comes into the room and stays for an hour; after that the company gets shorter and the child's stay gets longer, up to a full day. Every child moves at their own pace and nobody watches the clock: if another week is needed, we take it. The only condition is that someone can come in the morning on those first days.
No. We change them as often as needed and toilet training is supported when the child shows signs, usually between two and three, never by calendar or because school is coming. Nappies and creams are brought by each family, labelled with the child's name.
With a fever from 38°C, repeated diarrhoea or anything contagious, we call for pick-up: it isn't our rule, it's what protects the rest of the room. While you're on your way they stay calm and accompanied in the next room. Medicines are only given with a prescription and a signed authorisation, in a package with the child's name on it.
With a medical report, the kitchen prepares their dish separately, with their own crockery and a marked place, at no extra charge. The month's menu goes up on the 25th of the previous month with the allergens in each dish flagged. If food has to come from home for something very specific, we refrigerate and heat it here.
Visits for new families happen while the school is running, between 10:00 and 11:30, so you see a normal day and not an empty afternoon. Once enrolled, you come into the room at drop-off and pick-up, at tutorials and at celebrations. Not during the day, because an unfamiliar adult walking in mid-morning unsettles the whole room.
Ratios are those set by regional regulations for the first cycle of early years, and they differ by age group. Put your exact figures here, room by room, along with the size of your team: it's what a family actually wants to know and almost no website writes it down.
Anything left?
Ask usCentre authorised by [your regional education authority], centre code [yours]. Replace both placeholders with your school's real details before publishing. A first-cycle nursery school is authorised by its region's education authority and that authorisation has a number: it's the detail that reassures a family and the one most often left out. Nothing here is invented, deliberately.
Ratios and staff qualifications. Write how many children there are per educator in each room and what qualifications your team holds, following your region's regulations. This isn't small print: it's the first thing anyone asks.
Insurance. The school holds public liability insurance and a school accident policy with [your insurer], policy no. [yours]. The accident cover is included in the annual registration fee.
Meals. The kitchen is in this building and follows the hygiene and allergen control plan required by food safety regulations. The month's menu, with allergens flagged, goes up on the 25th of the previous month.
Three streets from San Lorenzo beach, with our own yard at the back.
Visits run Tuesday to Thursday, 10:00 to 11:30, while the school is running. You see all three rooms, the kitchen and the yard, and every question you've written down gets answered. It takes half an hour and you don't need to bring your child, though they're welcome.
