Funding

15 Hours Free Universal Entitlement for ALL 3 and 4 year Olds.

ALL children who are 3 or 4 years old have access to free childcare. We offer this funding at 15 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year (term time only).

We offer 15 hours of free funding (Universal Entitlement) for ALL children the term after their third birthday. These hours can be used flexibly to support your own personal circumstances.

We also offer the 30-hour extended entitlement, children can access all their 30 hour funding with us over five full days. 30 hours of entitlement would be £124.50 per week to use for services. This can be used flexibly in the same way as the 15 hours entitlement and shared between settings if you wish

Children can access this funding the term AFTER their third birthday. 

Childs Birthday

1 January to 31 March
1 April to 31 August
1 September to 31 December

When you can claim

The beginning of term on or after 1 April 
The beginning of term on or after 1 September
The beginning of term on or after 1 January 

30 Hours Extended Entitlement 

To qualify parent/s must be in work, including self-employment and each must be earning at least £120 a week and not more than £100,000 per year.

 To check your eligibility and apply online go to www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

If you are eligible, you will receive an 11 digit eligibility code. Please bring your code into pre-school for verification. Once this code has been verified, your 30-hour place will be secured from the term after you receive your code e.g. A code obtained between Sept-Dec can be used from January.

You will need to reconfirm your eligibility every 3 months and bring the new code into pre-school to be checked. It is your responsibility to do this. If your code expires, you will still be responsible to pay the full fees for the sessions taken. This is in line with our parent contract.

Places do fill up quickly therefore we advise you to register your child for pre-school from an early age.

Our pre-school offers hours as:

Session

Time

Length of session

Cost

Early morning session

07:30 – 08:45

1 hour 15 mins

£6.25

Morning session

08:45 – 11:45

3 hours

£12.45

Lunch

11:45 – 12:15

30 mins

£2.50

Afternoon session

12:15 – 15:15

3 hours

£12.45

Evening session

15:15 – 17:45

2 hours 30 mins

£12.50

FULL DAY

07.30 – 17:45

10 hours 15mins

£46.15


We calculate your weekly costs based on the amount of funding you choose to claim at the setting. Currently, the government calculate their funding at £4.15 per hour (this could be subject to change). Therefore, if you have 15 hours of funding, this equates to £62.25 to spend per week. 30 hours funding is equivalent to £124.50 per week.

If you would like to use the extended care services (early morning, lunch and evening sessions), these have an increased hourly rate of £5.00 per hour. This is due to the need to fund consumable items such as drinks, meals and snacks as well as additional staffing ratios and services.

You will be charged for the sessions that you choose based on the pricing structure above. We will then deduct the amount of funding hours you choose to use from the costs above to calculate your weekly charge.

Please note, if you choose for your child to have a full day in the pre-school, you are only able to claim for 10 hours of funding per day. The pre-school is open for 10hour 15 minutes per day. The additional minutes will be charged at £1.25 (£5.00 per hour) in line with our extended care hourly rate.

Some examples:

Child A is entitled to 15 hours of funding per week (£62.25). They come to pre-school for the morning sessions (08:45 – 11:45am) Monday to Friday and stay for lunch every day. Cost for the week is £74.75. Parents use their 15 hours of funding and therefore additional costs will be £12.50 for the week.

Child B is entitled to 15 hours of funding. They come to pre-school on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for full days from 08:45am– 3:15pm. This is £27.40 per day for sessions and lunches. For the 3 days, this would be £82.20. By using the 15 hours of funding, this will reduce the cost by £62.25. This will therefore mean that the weekly charge will be £19.95.

Child C is entitled to 30 hours of funding (£124.50). They will come to pre-school from 7:30 – 5:45pm for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Calculating all the sessions, this makes £46.15 per day and therefore £138.45 for three days. Parents will use their funding and therefore pay £13.95 per week.

Child D is entitled to 30 hours of funding (£124.50). They will come to pre-school from 7:30 – 5:45pm for Thursday and Friday. Calculating all sessions, this makes £46.15 per day and therefore £92.30 for two days. Parents will use their funding to reduce the charge but they can only claim 20 hours of funding due to the government cap of 10 hours of funding per day. This is a daily rate of £41.50. Therefore, there is a weekly charge of £9.30.

Please give the school office a call if you wish to discuss more information about your child care needs or personal circumstances further with us.