Places for 3 and 4-year-olds

What we offer 3-year-olds
15 hours for all 3 and 4-year-olds
30 hours for some 3 and 4-year olds
Longer hours for all families
Holiday playscheme at Church Hill Nursery School
Fees for 3 to 4-year-olds
Deposits and payments
How do I apply for a place?
When can my 3-year-old start nursery school?
When will I know if my child has a place?
Attendance
Changing your pattern

What we offer 3-year-olds

All families

All 3 to 4-year-olds get 15 free hours of education each week in term time.

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

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

Some working 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.

Longer hours for all families

Families who only get 15 free hours might need more. Either:

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

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)

Holiday playscheme at Church Hill Nursery School

All families with 3 to 4-year olds at both schools can book:

one holiday at a time, at least 2 days each holiday
all the holidays at once.

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 3 to 4-year-olds

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

Breakfast Club hours: £9 per hour

Core hours (9am to 4pm): £10 per hour

Teatime Club hours:

£9 per hour at Low Hall
£9.50 per hour at Church Hill

Lunch at Church Hill:

£3.50 per day, or
packed lunch

Lunch at Low Hall:

packed lunch

Holiday Playscheme (from Spring half-term 2025):

Breakfast (8 to 9am; limited spaces): £6
Core hours (9am to 4pm): £35
Teatime (4pm to 6pm; limited spaces): £12
Whole day: £50

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?

Add your child to our Waiting Lists:

after they are born
when they have a name

This is free. Please don't do it 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 chosen. Like primary school, we offer places according to our admissions criteria. We don't offer places on time on the list. Find out more on the Admissions page.

When can my 3-year-old start nursery school?

Most children leave our schools in July, to go to primary school.

Most 3-year-olds start our schools in September, to fill the gaps. They start the September after they 3.

When will I know if my child has a place?

Just before Easter, we email everyone on the waiting list. We ask what hours you need. We then work out who can start the next September. Please confirm as soon as possible:

that you still want a place.
for 15 hours, if you want mornings or afternoons.
if you get the free 30 hours, which pattern you want and your eligibility code.
if you want to pay for more hours, what you would like.

If we offer your child a place we will send you some forms to fill in. This starts the admissions process.

Attendance

You are expected to bring your child to a 3-hour session every weekday. This way, they build stronger social bonds with other children and with staff, and this aids their development. They also get used to having a weekday routine, which is helpful for all the family as preparation for primary school.

Changing your pattern

We can only make changes to your child's daycare pattern if we have the space and the staff to guarantee their education. Any change that we are able to accommodate will be actioned the term after you make the request, and we require a minimum of 4 weeks’ notice. We use this time to make sure we will have enough staff in the school to take care of the children, as well as to sort out the admin. This is a time-consuming and complicated process, so we only allow 3 changes per academic year and once in every term. If you change pattern between accepting a place and a September start, this counts as your Autumn term change, so you will not be able to change again before January at the earliest.