Admissions, Times and Prices
Our term-time-only Kindergartens take children aged 2 - 5 years old. Please note children can only start in the term of their 3rd birthday, and we have a limited number of spaces for these rising 3’s (2 years old, but nearly 3).
Settling In and All About Me Meeting
Voucher Payments & Tax-Free Childcare Allowance
OPENING HOURS
Stapleton
Mondays 8.00 - 15.30 (After-Kindie 15:30-17:30)
Tuesdays 8:00-15:30 (After-Kindie 15:30-17:30)
Wednesdays 8:00 - 15:30 (After-Kindie 15:30-17:30)
Thursdays 8:00 - 15:30 (Team Meeting)
Brislington
Mondays 8.00 - 15.30 (After-Kindie 15:30-17:30)
Tuesdays 8:00-15:30 (After-Kindie 15:30-17:30)
Wednesdays 8:00 - 15:30 (After-Kindie 15:30-17:30)
Thursdays 8:00 - 15:30 (Team Meeting)
Parents can drop off anytime between 8:00 and 9:00 and collect any time from 15:00 until 15:20.
Please allow yourself 10 minutes to gather belongings and chat with your child's key worker etc.
TERM DATES FOR SEPT 2023 - 2024
Term 1: Monday 4th September 2023 to Thursday 19 October 2023
Term 2: Monday 30 October 2023 to Thursday 14th December 2023
Term 3: Tuesday 2 January 2024 to Thursday 8th February 2024
Term 4: Monday 19 February 2024 to Thursday 28 March 2024
Term 5: Monday 15 April 2024 to Thursday 23rd May 2024
Term 6: Monday 3 June 2024 to Thursday 11th July 2024
TERM DATES FOR SEPT 2024 - 2025
. Term 1: Monday 2 September 2024 to Thursday 24th October 2024
Term 2: Monday 4th November 2024 to Thursday 19th December 2024
Term 3: Monday 6th January 2025 to 13th February 2025
Term 4: Monday 24th February 2025 - 3rd April 2025
Term 5: Tuesday 22nd April 2025 to Thursday 22nd May 2025
Term 6: Monday 2nd June 2025 to Thursday 10th July 2025
We are open for 38 weeks a year (this differs to schools who are open for 40 weeks a year).
Please note we are closed on bank holidays and you will not be charged for your child’s place.
KINDERGARTEN FEES
You can fund your child's pre school place using the government funded hours (see the GOVERNMENT FUNDED HOURS section below) or pay for your child's place. We do not have any restrictions on when or how you can use your funded hours, meaning you can attend our setting on all 4 days and use all of your 30 hours (or 2 days and use all of your 15).
We do ask for a daily £8.50 Sustainability Contribution if using the funded hours for Kindergarten and £1 per session for Afternoon Tea if using funded hours for After Kindie (see details further down the page)*. These fees are removed if you are a low income family in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium.
KINDERGARTEN Day £52.50 (8:00-15:30)
After Kindie £14.00 (15:30 - 17:30)
These prices are inclusive of an organic morning snack and afternoon tea.
Please note the following price Increases for September 2024:
KINDERGARTEN Day £56.25 (8:00-15:30)
After Kindie £15.00 (15:30 - 17:30)
* For funded hours, the Sustainability Contribution will be rising to £10.00 per day and Afternoon Tea will increase to £1.50
This brings us in line with other similar ‘Forest School’ type settings across the South West. Settings such as ours have a much higher adult: child ratio and a wider range of enrichment activities, including Forest School.
AFTER KINDIE CLUB
Our 'After Kindie' club allows greater flexibility for working parents. We offer it on 3 days of the week, Monday to Wednesday at both our Brislington and Stapleton sites.
After Kindie runs from 15:30 - 17:30 and the cost for the session is £14.00 (£15.00 from September 2024) which includes an afternoon snack/light tea. If using government funded hours to pay for this session, you will be invoiced £1.00 per session for Afternoon Tea (£1.50 from September 2024).
Please note, we require an ongoing booking and sessions cannot be booked ad-hoc. Places are limited.
WAITING LIST REGISTRATION
We are currently full in Brislington and Stapleton for September 2023 but we operate a reserve list in case of any dropouts.
Waiting lists for both settings are open and run up to 2027.
In the first instance, you will need to complete a waiting list registration form.
Our main intakes are in September, so you can only select a September start date.
You may be contacted prior to this if you select that you would be happy to take an ‘in year’ place.
Please note that we require a minimum attendance of 2 days a week, we do not open on Fridays and that we are a term-time only setting.
ADMISSIONS POLICY
For more information about our admissions policy, please click below:
VISITING OUR SETTING
A year ahead of your chosen admission date (the September before your child would potentially start with us), you will be invited to an open day. For our September 2024 intake, this will take place in October at your chosen setting.
If you cannot make this date or tickets run out (we have limited capacity), we will hold an Autumn see and play/open morning towards the end of October. Please note we do not arrange 1:1 visits. The invitations for the open day and Autumn see and play go out to people on the waiting list in September.
NEXT STEPS
After these two events, we will contact people from the waiting list, asking them to reconfirm their interest and advise us of the exact days they require. It is very important you do not miss this communication from us. It will be titled ‘Admissions for September 2024’. If you haven’t done so already, please add admin@outtherekindergartens.co.uk to your contacts.
During the following January/February, we will contact people in order of the waiting list and according to our admissions policy to offer a place. If you successfully get a place, you will receive an email invitation to our online parent portal - FAMLY - as, at this point, we will have set your child up with a profile and a booking plan.
We use FAMLY for many things, including obtaining registration details such as home address and emergency contact details, as well as invoicing and payments.
More information on Famly can be found in the video below.
SETTLING IN AND ALL ABOUT ME MEETING
Our parent handbook contains more information about our settling in our policy. In brief, before, children start with us we will arrange a 1:1 meeting between you (your family) and one of the team, usually the key person. This meeting helps us get to know your child a little bit before they start with us. The first few weeks are viewed as settling in sessions. The first week is mornings only from 9:00 - 12:00 with no packed lunch required and the second week is 9:00 - 14:00 when the children stay on and have lunch.
Please note we charge for a full session during the settling-in sessions.
For full details, please see our settling in policy click here.
ADMINISTRATION FEE
There is a £25.00 ADMIN fee for anyone paying for their child's place or using additional hours and self funding them. This fee helps towards processing payments and the admin involved. This will be included in your first invoice or if you increase/change your hours and they are self funded.
DEPOSIT
We require a £100 deposit to hold your place. Once you have a profile on FAMLY, we will send you an invoice for the deposit. Please make payment ASAP as this is how we guarantee your place. Whilst we are able to accept childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare account payments for monthly kindergarten fees, deposit payments must be made through FAMLY.
The deposit is refundable if your child starts attending the Kindergarten and will be returned upon your child leaving provided your fees have been paid in full. Your deposit will not be returned if you withdraw your place before your child starts attending with us.
SUSTAINABILITY CONTRIBUTION
We request that parents/carers contribute towards the delivery of our provision at the cost of £8.50 per day (£10 from September 2024).
The following is taken from our local provider agreement with the council: Government funding is intended to cover the cost to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. It is not intended to cover the cost of meals, consumables, additional hours or additional services. It is, therefore, necessary that we apply a charge for morning snack, consumables and additional services.
The Sustainability Contribution goes towards the following and more:
Regular, if not daily, off-site opportunities to engage in forest school, woodland walks and nature play.
Higher adult: child ratios to allow for frequent local trips
Qualified teachers working directly with the children
Qualified Forest School leaders working directly with the children
A range of enrichment activities including daily forest school activties
Specialist resources
Organic morning snack
We call it a ‘Sustainability Contribution’ as without this additional income, our provision wouldn’t be able to operate according to our vision and values.
This Sustainability Contribution is only applied to those using government-funded hours. It does not apply to those self-funding. You will be invoiced monthly through FAMLY for this additional contribution. To put this into real terms, if your child attends two days a week for 38 weeks a year, we will request an additional £17.00 per week (£20 per week from September 2024).
We offer a number of 'free' places to funded 2-year-old children and to children who are eligible for the Early Year Pupil Premium (EYPP). If your child receives this funding, the Sustainability Contribution will not be requested.
INVOICING & PAYMENTS
If paying for your child’s place, we will send you an invoice at the beginning of the month. Invoices must be paid within ten days of receipt. All payments must be made through FAMLY unless using childcare vouchers or tax-free childcare allowances (see below).
If you have set up a Direct Debit, the money will be debited on the 10th of the month.
VOUCHER PAYMENTS & TAX-FREE CHILDCARE ALLOWANCE
We accept a variety of childcare vouchers. If paying by childcare vouchers, please let us know when you have made payment and how much. We are registered with the following providers:
Computershare: 0024135102
Eden Red: P21060292
Care 4: 22954380
Sodexo: 845040
Kiddivoucher
Busybees
Amba People: 08182
Childcare Choices
We also accept the tax-free childcare allowance. If paying by this method, please let us know when you have made payment and how much.
For Brislington the Ofsted registration number EY546746 and postcode BS4 4DY
For Stapleton the Ofsted registration number is EY560249 and the postcode is BS16 1UQ
GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HOURS
(new offer) eligible 2 year olds with working parents
From April 2024, we will offer the government-funded hours to parents entitled to it. Children aged 2 years old with working parents will be eligible for 15 hours of government funding from the term after their 2nd birthday (rising to 30 hours from September 2024) provided parents have an eligibility code.
Funding is available for 38 weeks of the year (during term time). If you go over your funding entitlement, the hourly rate will apply.
As per our admissions policy, we require children to attend a minimum of two days a week for 7.5 hours a day.
You can split your hours across other providers. It is the provider's responsibility to claim your funded entitlement provided you complete an ERY1 form.
3 and 4 year olds
We offer government-funded hours to parents entitled to it; all children aged 3-4 are eligible for Government funding from the term after their third birthday. Funding is available for 38 weeks of the year (during term time) and cannot be used to pay for holiday club care. If you go over your total entitlement, the hourly rate will apply.
We offer the full 15 or 30 hours a week, and we do not place any restrictions on when or how you can use the hours. You can either use all 15 or 30 hours with us or split them across other providers (with a limit of 3 providers at a time and no more than two in one day). It is the provider's responsibility to claim your funded entitlement.
For us to claim the 15 or 30 hours, you must complete an EYR1 Form.
In order to understand our funded and non funded hours please read this very important document:
Important note about funded Hours claims.
!!!
Important note about funded Hours claims. !!!
Important Note: You can only make a new claim or adjust your existing claim before starting a term and not partway through each term. The terms are starting on the 1st of September, 1st of January and 1st of March
Parents can access the 30 hours entitlement if they (each in dual-parent families) earn at least the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the national living wage – or national minimum wage for those under 25 and at the top of the scale earn less than £100,000 per year. The minimum threshold is based on income, not the number of hours worked so that a parent could be working for less than 16 hours per week but earning the equivalent of 16 hours at the national minimum or living wage. Self-employed parents and those on zero-hours contracts are also eligible, as are families where only one parent is employed, where the other parent has substantial caring responsibilities or is disabled.
For more information on the funded hours, please click on the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/free-childcare-and-education-for-2-to-4-year-olds
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
We offer a number of 'free' places to Eligible 2-year-old children and children aged 3 & 4 who receive the 15 universal hours and who are eligible for the Early Year Pupil Premium. If your child is an Eligible 2 year old or a 3or 4 year old with EYPP, you will not be charged the SUSTAINABILITY fee, provided you can provide proof of one of the following when submitting your ERY1 claim form, and your claim comes back as eligible (determined by Bristol City Council).
income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
income-related Employment and Support Allowance
support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190
Working Tax Credit Run On, which is paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
Universal Credit - your household income must be less than £7,400 a year after tax, not including any benefits you get
Find out if you are eligible via these website pages:
For 2 year olds : https://parent.bristol.gov.uk/web/portal/pages/parents/freechildcare
For 3 and 4 year olds : https://www.gov.uk/get-extra-early-years-funding
When you fill out your EYR1 form, please attach a document in relation to any of the above for us to try and verify your eligibility.
Please note - that if your claim comes back as rejected, we will notify you and adjust your invoices accordingly.
FILL OUT AN EYR1 FORM
To complete an EYR1 Form to allocate Out There government-funded hours, please click below: