
All 3 and 4-year-old children are entitled to up to 15 hours a week of free early education and childcare. This adds up to 570 hours per year. This is called the universal entitlement.
3 and 4-year-olds whose parents are working may be able to get up to 15 additional hours a week of free early education and childcare. This adds up to 1,140 hours per year. This is called the extended entitlement (also known as 30 hours).
Merton Children, Schools and Families department has a useful page of information on the changes, which may be viewed here.
We currently provides Nursery education for 3 and 4 year olds for 15 hours per week, the term after they turn 3, under the Government’s Free Early ‘Universal’ Education offer.
We offer eligible families the option to use their extended 30 hours’ entitlement in our Nursery, which means that their child is able access 30 hours of free, quality school-based Nursery provision from 08.45AM to 14.30PM. However, as our Nursery is open from 08.45 – 15.30PM, there is an additional 1 hour per day that parents need to pay at a cost of £3 per day (£15 per week) for each child.
You can check what help you can get with childcare costs and an initial indication of your eligibility for 30 hours of free childcare, via the GOV UK website. If you are eligible, you will receive a code, which you need to share with us, in order to allocate your child a 30 hours’ place.
All families with a 3 and 4 year old child remain eligible for the universal offer of free early education of up to 15 hours a week term time. This is offered as either a 3 hour morning session or 3 hour afternoon session. Morning sessions run between 08.45 – 11.45 and afternoon sessions are between 12.30 – 15.30.
Families not eligible for the extended entitlement have the opportunity to pay for our “Wrap-Around” extended provision, which runs until until 15.30PM, at a cost of £20 per day.
We are currently able to offer a limited number of places as part of our 30 hours/Wrap-Around offer. The following criteria will be used to allocate places:
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Looked after children or children who were previously Looked after
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Families who require 5 days per week
Please contact Miss Magday if you have any questions about our 30 hours funded/Wrap-Around offer.