Nursery Charging policy – April 2025 to July 2026

Lakenham Primary and Nursery School, is a county school admitting children to the nursery from the age of 3.

Funded places

2024/25

In the school year 2024/25, children are entitled to funded places for 15 hours per week from the term after their third birthday. Funded sessions are available from 8.50-11.45am and 12.30-3.30pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery is open term time only and is closed for teacher training days and bank holidays.

Additional charges will be implemented from the start of the summer term 2025:

2025/26 onwards

In the school year 2025/26 all children are entitled to a funded place for 15 or 30 hours per week from the term after their third birthday. Funded sessions are available from 8.45-11.50am and 12.30-3.30pm, Monday to Friday. The nursery is open term time only and is closed for teacher training days and bank holidays. Government funding is intended to cover the cost to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare only. It is not intended to cover the cost of meals/snacks, consumables, additional hours or additional services. To access 30-hour funding parents need to obtain a valid code, if parents do not obtain a valid code any sessions over 15 hours will be charged for. To check entitlement and to obtain a code please visit: 

Get Tax-Free Childcare: step by step - GOV.UK

We aim to identify all children that may attract any additional funding such as EYPP, DAF, SEND Inclusion Fund and any locally available funding streams with a view to submit a claim/application to support and improve their outcomes.

Funding is available as follows:

For a child born 1st April to 31st August, funding begins in September.

For a child born 1st September to 31st December, funding begins in January.

For a child born 1st January to 31st March, funding begins in April.

Starting Nursery before funding is available

A child may start at the nursery from their third birthday, if a place is available. Sessions will need to be paid for by the parent until funding becomes available. 

*The consumable charge contributes towards outings to the supermarket, baking ingredients, playdough, parties, wipes/gloves, nature school and special provision enhancements. This is in line with our EY funding agreement guidelines.

Our fees are reviewed annually by the governing body in January. Families will be given at least 6 weeks’ notice in writing to inform them of any change, and given the opportunity to discuss any concerns with the School Business Manager.

For 2025/26 onwards - Lunch Clubs 11.45am-12.30pm

Lunch Club is open to any child in nursery should you wish to extend your child’s morning or afternoon session. Places are limited and priority is given to children attending a full day. All extra sessions need to be booked in advance and must be paid before by the due date on the invoice.

Additional sessions and costs

If you would like to book extra sessions days in addition to your funded hours there is a cost of £16.20 per 3 hour session and £5 for each Lunch Club session. These will be allocated on a first come first served basis and must be arranged in advance. One month’s notice will be required if parents wish to cancel additional paid sessions. If you would like to increase your sessions, this will be subject to availability of spaces and adequate staffing levels. Ad hoc sessions may be available at the session price of £16.20, please contact the school office for availability, these ad hoc sessions are payable at the time of booking. Funded hours cannot be used for ad hoc sessions. 

Lunch club cannot be part of your child’s funded hours and must be paid for.

For 2025/26 onwards - Full day option

Children can attend a full day session from 8.45am until 3.30pm. Funded hours can be used for the morning session (8.45-11.45am) and the afternoon session (12.30-3.30pm) but Lunch Club (11.45-12.30) must be paid for.

Parents will only be invoiced for those sessions not covered by the free nursery entitlement. Any sessions that are not covered by funding after a claim has been submitted need to be paid for.

Families who are eligible for the working family’s entitlement will have the option of taking all or part of these hours at Lakenham Primary School. Places will be offered in accordance with the Nursery Admissions policy. For the extended offer core hours are 8.45-11.50am and 12.30 to 3.30pm. 

Completion of the claim form by parents is mandatory.

Vouchers

Where employer’s childcare vouchers are used to pay fees, parents should contact the School Office.

We are registered with the Government’s Tax-Free Childcare Service. However, if you are entitled to vouchers from a scheme not mentioned please do provide us with details and we can look into registering with them to enable us to accept the vouchers.

Payment terms

All families will be issued an invoice at the start of each half term. The invoice will be itemised to provide clear and transparent information concerning the charges as agreed in the parent agreement and booking form. It will allow parents/carers to see that the entitlement is received completely free of charge and understand additional fees that have been applied. 

The payment term is within two weeks of issue date. Failure to do so can result in your child losing their place. 

If you have any problems with your finances, please speak to the Early Years Foundation Stage Coordinator, Headteacher or School Business Manager. All financial issues will be treated in confidence. We accept childcare vouchers and bank transfers. Bank transfer details are displayed on the bottom of each invoice. For parents with no email address, a hard copy is printed and handed to the parent.

All fees will be charged unless specific arrangements have been agreed and whilst a childcare contract remains in place. 

The entitlement place is offered free. Parents will not be charged a “top up” fee to recoup the difference between the amount received from the Local Authority and the current hourly rate. 

Late Payment Fee

Where payments are not made on time, a late payment charge will be applied. This will be £10 per instance of late payment to cover additional administration fees.

In cases where payment is late without prior agreement, your child’s place will be suspended for chargeable sessions, until payment is made. Your child will still be able to attend any funded sessions that they are entitled to. If payments are not received in accordance with our Bad Debt policy.

Deposit

The nursery charges a £30 holding deposit to be added to the waiting list, which will be credited against your first invoice once your child is attending the setting. Should your child not start this deposit will not be refunded. 

Where a time lapse has occurred between the point of enquiry and your child’s start date, families should check that the information shared about funding and fees remains current so that any applicable charges can be checked/finalised before the childcare arrangement (contract) is formalised.

Late Pick up

It is very important that children are picked up on time, as nursery staff do not have the capacity to look after children after the session has ended. Where parents are repeatedly late picking a child up, we reserve the right to charge for the extra time. This will be a charge of £10 for every block of 15 minutes after the session ends. For example, where the session ends at 3.30pm, if the child is picked up between 3.35–3.45pm, they will be charged £10; if they are picked up between 3.45-4.00pm, they will be charged £20 and so on. They will be charged this amount of each instance of late pick up.

All fees will be charged unless specific arrangements have been agreed and whilst a child contract remains in place. 

In the event of non-payment, reminders will firstly be issued by speaking to the parents or informing them by email. This will be followed up in writing.

• If non-payment persists, the school will follow our bad-debt policy.
• If non-payment continues beyond the end of the half term, the child’s place may be lost for the next term.
• We are unable to issue refunds when a child is absent due to family holiday/illness as staff have to be paid, regardless of the number of children present. 

Cancellation policy/Illness and termination

Once you have booked any additional paid for sessions, you are obliged to pay, even if your child does not attend for any reason including illness and holidays. This also applied to Lunch Club. You do not have to pay for funded places if your child does not attend.

Families wishing to terminate their childcare contract must provide 4 weeks’ notice in writing to office@lakenham.norfolk.sch.uk. Any funding entitlement claimed beyond the notice period is transferable to your new childcare provider via the local authority where the funding criteria is met. Where a child leaves the setting before the end of the agreed notice period, we will seek authorisation from the local authority to claim any funding applicable to your entitlement up to the end of the notice period, together with any additional fees which form part of your childcare contract.

The school reserves the right to withdraw the additional sessions’ provision if the Headteacher or Early Years Coordinator feels this is in the best interest of the child. Parents will be given a minimum of two weeks’ notice of withdrawal of provision in these circumstances.

Where withdrawal of provision has occurred due to failure to pay fees, the Headteacher reserves the right to refuse future reinstatement of additional sessions in the nursery. In addition, reinstatement of this additional provision will not take place until:

1. Full payment of arrears of nursery fees has been made.
2. A minimum of four weeks’ fees has been paid in advance.
3. The parent has met with the School Business Manager to discuss and agree a future payment schedule.