Places for 2-year-olds

What we offer 2-year-olds

Low-income/disadvantaged places

Some families get 15 free hours of education each week in term time. Check if you get this funding on the Waltham Forest website. Apply for your 6-digit code on the same website. You can also:

call the Waltham Forest Childcare Team on 020-8496 3566 or
scan this QR code:

These term-time places are 5 days a week. They are either:

Morning places: 9am to 12 noon, or
Afternoon places: 1pm to 4pm

Working families places

Some families get 30 free hours of education each week in term time. Check if you get this funding on this page of the government website. Apply for your 11-digit code on the same website. You can also scan this QR code:

QR code leading to www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

These term-time places are 5 days a week. Either:

Monday to Friday from 9am to 3pm, or
Monday to Thursday from 9am to 4pm. Morning or afternoon on Friday.

No free hours

Some families get no free hours. They can pay for term-time places. These are five days a week, either:

Monday to Friday from 9am to 3pm, or
Monday to Thursday from 9am to 4pm. Morning or afternoon on Friday.

Longer hours

All families might need more hours. Add these, at least 2 days each week:

Breakfast Club (8-9am)
Teatime Club (3pm or 4pm to 6pm)

We might open a holiday playscheme for 2-year-olds at Low Hall Nursery School.

Also

Some children need significant support in nursery. We might only be able to offer them a 15-hour place. Sometimes this is all they can cope with at this young age. Please speak to the SENDco (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator) to find out what is possible.

Fees for 2-year-olds

We are reviewing our prices for September 2025. These fees might change.

Core hours (9am to 4pm): £11 per hour

Breakfast Club hours: £10 per hour.

Teatime Club hours:

£10 per hour at Low Hall
£10.50 per hour at Church Hill.

Playscheme: tbc

Children bring a packed lunch.

Families give us nappies and wipes for children who don't yet use the toilet.

We ask all families to give money to School Fund. You don't have to. We use this money:

for the children’s snacks
to help pay for small group outings
to help pay for children’s entertainers.

Deposits and payments

For paid hours, we ask for:

£10 registration fee. You don't get this back.
a deposit of one month’s fees

You pay both these before your child starts. So in early July for a September start.

The deposit counts as the final month's fees.

You pay the fees monthly and in advance. The money leaves your account around the 5th day of the month.

We spread the monthly payments over 11 months. This means you pay the same amount each month, in term-time and school holidays.

How do I put my child on the waiting list?

As soon as your child is born and has a name, you can add them to our Waiting Lists for free. Please don't do this before they are born:

fill out our Application form
select ‘Church Hill’ or ‘Low Hall’
fill in the rest of the form and submit it. You must answer questions with a '*'.

This adds your child to the Waiting List of the school you have selected. Like primary and secondary schools, we offer places according to our admissions criteria, not time on the list. Read more about Who gets a place and what happens next.

When can my 2-year-old start nursery?

Eligible 2-year-olds can start their free 15 hours the term after their 2nd birthday, as soon as we have a place.

We cannot take a child before they are 2.

When do I find out if we have a place?

Most places are available in September, and we contact everyone on our waiting list the Spring before that. We ask:

if you still want a place at the school
what type of place you want to apply for

We then work out if we have a place that suits you. If we do, we send you an 'offer email'. If you say 'yes' to this offer, we arrange for you and your child to start the Admissions process and Settling in.

If a place becomes available mid-year, we try to fill it. We contact the families on our waiting list in the order set out in our admissions criteria.

Parents who are studying or working

It is our experience that children who attend school every day benefit in many ways, however children also benefit enormously from spending quality time with their parents and carers.

If you have a morning or afternoon place and have an opportunity to study or work that means you need a different pattern, please talk to Helen Currie, our Executive Headteacher as soon as possible.