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The more they go, the more they'll get used to the long days/more activites going on compared to home/childminders.
Our daughter is 2 (3 next August), doesn't nap at nursery (dropped her nursery nap at 20 months and now only naps at the weekend with us) and does 8-5.30 5 days a week. By Friday she's definitely pretty conked out - but every week she gets a little bit better at dealing with it and things like the drive home/the evening pre-bed time are all worlds better now compared to when she first dropped the nap back in April/May of this year.
She moved to the older nursery group 3 weeks ago and that moved immediately made her more tired after the end of each day as there is just more going on, more to do etc. But day by day, week by week she gradually got used to it and now when I pick her up at half 5 she's good to get home with no issue (outside of usual tantrums because I won't let her drive the car??) and we can do bedtime without any major fuss.