Help for parents with childcare costs and the expansion of free entitlement

Working parents of children may qualify for tax free childcare, where for every £8 parents put in, the government pays £2.

All children are eligible for 15 hours free entitlement from the term after their third birthday. Working parents may be eligible for 30 hours entitlement.

Some two year olds may qualify for FEET funding which is means tested.

From April 2024, working parents of 2 year olds may be eligible for 15 hours free entitlement from the term after their second birthday.

From September 2024, working parents of children from 9 months may be eligible for 15 hours free entitlement from the term after they turn 9 months.

From September 2025, working parents of children from 9 months may be eligible for the extended 30 hours free entitlement.

All information is now on the childcare choices website, and parents can put in details to see if you qualify.

https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Playschool places

We are really sorry but we are now provisionally full until September 2025. You’re welcome to join the waiting list in case anything comes up before then, but at the moment we can’t offer any confirmed places before then.

Admissions Update

Due to an unprecedented number of applications, we’ve had to close our waiting list now, so we don’t have any spaces until September 2024, and they’re already filling up quickly. Please do get in touch as early as possible to arrange a visit and sign up if you’re looking for September 2024 and beyond.

Admissions for September 2023

We’re now totally full for the rest of 2022/2023 and already looking really busy from September 2023, with very limited spaces available already – please do get in touch as soon as possible if you’re looking for a space to avoid disappointment

Visit from Mr Plod

We’ve reintroduced our parent rota, and we were very lucky to be visited by one of the Mummy’s and Mr Plod the pet tortoise! We watched him have a walk around the playschool garden and he ate some of his lettuce. Initially some of us weren’t sure about giving him a stroke, but by the time he went home, we’d all gained the confidence to very gently stroke his shell.

Greengrocers visit

What a lovely outing we had today! We’ve been exploring real food in the home corner, so arranged a visit to the local Greengrocers, Laytons in Bookham High Street to further develop our understanding of food. The children were so excited to see the vivid colours and different textures on offer, and we all chose one fruit or vegetable to take home and also some to share at playschool. In the afternoon the staff cooked the cauliflower and cabbage for the children to taste and apparently it was delicious!