Esther and William are two years old.

They will be 3 in July.

They are due to start school in September 2014.

Our local village school is tiny and I have real concerns about its suitability for Esther and William.

The first class of the school currently has reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all in one class.

This is a huge range and I know that there can be a huge ability range in a single entry class but socially and emotionally I feel it is wrong to put children who are just 4 in a class with children who are already 7.

Esther and William are confident, sociable children and they love older children but I do not want them to be in the same class as children three years older than them.

So what are our choices?

Well, because we literally live opposite the school we do not really have many.

Esther and William currently attend a preschool that is attached to a popular, oversubscribed school that we do not have a chance of getting them in to.

We can express a preference for the school but we know that we do not realistically stand a chance of gaining a place, let alone the two places that we need.

We send them to the village school and hope that the numbers of pupils increase and the school setup can be rearranged.

We home educate or we send Esther and William to private preparatory school.

I have never ever imagined that I would have children that go to private school and yet it has so much to offer.

We have been to look round our local prep school and it was really nice.

I have no idea what to do and I need to make a decision in the next couple of days certainly for preschool.

Do they stay at their current preschool which is lovely and that we all like? They have caring staff that have been so good to us since Tilda died. Esther and William play lots and enjoy the outside space that is provided. I think they will do some letters and numbers there next year but nothing too formal. Here they would attend Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon, Thursday all day and Friday morning.

Do I move them to the pre-prep where the preschool is slightly more formal and has more structured letter and number activities? My reason for doing this would be because I feel they are ready to start learning phonics and being part of a more structured routine. It would also buy us more time as Esther and William could stay in the pre-prep department through reception until we found them a space in a state school that is appropriate for their needs. If they were to move here they would have to attend 5 sessions a week and as we can only use education vouchers in the afternoons they would have to go for five afternoons. And this could be good as I could do messy play with them in the mornings or go out with them and then go to school for the afternoons. It would mean that we would have no week day to ourselves to do things.

I am going round and round in circles and just do not know what to do for the best.

Any thoughts would be much much much appreciated x