Funding / Charges

---

The DfE statutory guidance – Early education and childcare (April 2025) states by January 2026, all Early Years providers need to publish the costs of voluntary chargeable extras and how they deliver the funded entitlements on their website.  These voluntary charges should be clear, up-to-date and easy to understand, to assist parents in making an informed choice on how and where they access the funded entitlement for their child. We hope this information is easy to understand, but please feel free to ask if you need more information. 

We have no hidden charges at Nursery. We hope that these charges we ask for allow your child to access all the amazing experiences we love to provide.    

We are a not for profit organisation.  Everything we do goes back into Nursery for the learning and the crucial development of your children.  We constantly need new resources, toys, crafts, supplies & much more. 

We love to treat the children to new experiences. 

We love to have a visitor several times each half term - it might be PE, football sessions with Coach Steve, yoga, rugby tots, dance teachers (we use the amazing Sarah from ADC Dance)... we also like to take the children on trips.  As most of our trips use the local area & community they don't cost.  However, for our Transport Week we like to go to Witham on the train.  Although this doesn't cost for children's tickets, we have to bring in more staff to adhere to safety. 

We like to do cooking sessions, we have hot dinners to prepare the children for school several times a year. 

We have a whole Nursery Christmas party each year, so costs for food, an entertainer and presents from Father Christmas are included rather than being charged separately. 

Sadly, most of these things come at a cost & we would really like to continue to do them - as we are sure you would.  We feel we are always going above & beyond. 

We also pay for your child's Tapestry account & not forgetting our brilliant end of year trip.  We don't charge for nappies & such & will always continue to provide them & spare clothes at no extra cost should you forget to pack extras.  

You will receive an invoice at the beginning of each half term (every 5-8 weeks).  

This invoice will show the following - 

*Funded Entitlement Hours - the days, sessions and times your child attends across the week, and how many hours this equates to, using either 3-4 universal funding, two year funding or 30 hours Working Families Funding.

*Any Additional Hours - the extra hours your child attend Nursery above those that are funded.  These are charged at £8 per hour (correct at Dec 2025).   

*Food / Snack Charges - we do not charge for this per day, however, we do ask for £1 a week to cover our food bill.  We offer a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, savoury snacks and new foods from around the world.  

*Non Food Consumables Charges  / Activities Charges - we do not charge for nappies or wipes or things like suncream, and will always continue to provide them and spare clothes should you forget to provide extras.  

For children accessing Working Families Funding (FEEEW) in Raindrops Room and Rainbow Room we ask for £20 per term (September, January and April) and for all children in Sunshine Room we ask for £30 per term (September, January and April).  

Our non food consumables charge covers £3 per child of our Tapestry subscription. 

The activities charge covers sports visits, e.g. football Coach Steve and dance teacher Sarah from ADC Dance, who both come 2-4 times a month, plus any other sports coaches, e.g. yoga, cricket or rugby coaches.  This also covers cooking, which all rooms do several times a term, trips and hot food. We also have an end of year party, and this is also taken into account for food, an entertainer and presents from Father Christmas! 

Those children who are using two year funding or those eligible for EYPP (Early Years Pupil Premium) are not charged for any consumables or activities charges. 

We believe that parents are partners in their child's education and we are more than happy to discuss any of the above with you, please just ask or pop us an email.