Applying for a place
Greenfield Pre-School is open from 7.45am to 5.45pm, Monday to Friday, all year round apart from bank holidays, certain teacher training days and the school Christmas break. For the primary school holidays, please see the term dates under the Parents tab.
As soon as your child turns two, they can start at the pre-school, if we have a space.
Your child can start at any point of the year but as demand for places is high, we recommend you add your child's name to the waiting list as early as possible. You can do this following your child's first birthday.
Sessions
The pre-school offers a variety of sessions:
- Full day - 7.45am to 5.45pm
- Half day AM - 7.45am to 12.30pm
- Half day PM - 12.30pm to 5.45pm
- Full school day - 8.45am to 3.30pm
- School hours AM - 8.45am to 11.45am
- School hours PM - 12.30pm to 3.30pm
3 hours of funding can be used for a morning or afternoon session and 6 hours for a full day or full school day.
We offer 3 options of session bookings:
Term time only (38 weeks) - School term time only. FEEE funding, if parents are eligible, will be claimed for 38 weeks.
Short stretch (43 weeks) - Sessions will be allocated for the full school year from September to July, including all half terms and Easter. FEEE funding, if parents are eligible, will be stretched over 43 weeks.
Outside of these two options any additional sessions will be charged at our published rates, and subject to availability.
Long Stretch (50 weeks) - Sessions will be allocated for the full year and FEEE funding, if parents are eligible, will be stretched over 50 weeks.
As fees will vary according to the number of sessions required, FEEE funding and the chosen option, please contact the pre-school office for ana indication of costs for your child.
Tax-Free Childcare offers significant savings on childcare fees. You’ll set up an online childcare account for your child and for every £8 you pay into this account, the government will pay in £2 to use to pay the pre-school.
You can get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as 15 or 30 hours free childcare if you’re eligible for both.
You can obtain more information on help with childcare costs here.
Eligibility for Government Funded Hours – Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE)
From 1st September 2017, nationally and across Leicestershire, subject to parents’ meeting the criteria, all three and four year olds are entitled to 30 hours of free early learning and childcare per week for 38 weeks (term-time) of the year (30 hours’ x 38 weeks of term-time = 1,140 hours). This entitlement begins the term after your child’s third birthday.
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A child born between: |
Will be eligible for a free place from: |
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1st January and 31st March |
The start of the summer term after their 3rd birthday until statutory school age. |
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1st April and 31st August |
The start of the autumn term after their 3rd birthday until statutory school age. |
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1st September and 31st December |
The start of the spring term after their 3rd birthday until statutory school age. |
Two year old funding
From 1st April 2024, subject to parents’ meeting the eligibility criteria, all two year olds of working parents are entitled to 15 hours of funding per week for 38 weeks (term-time) of the year (30 hours’ x 38 weeks of term-time = 570 hours). This entitlement begins the term after your child’s second birthday.
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A child born between: |
Will be eligible for a free place from: |
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1st January and 31st March |
The start of the summer term starting on or after 1st April |
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1st April and 31st August |
The start of the autumn term starting on or after 1st September |
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1st September and 31st December |
The start of the spring term starting on or after 1st January |
Eligibility must be checked by a parent/carer every term here. It is a parent/carer's responsibility to ensure their child is eligible and obtain the eligibility code from the Childcare Choices website. The pre-school is not responsible for any errors in eligibility codes and if a child is found to be not eligible for funding, parents/carers are required to pay the full fees.
Parents who are not working
Some two year olds of parent who are not in work may also receive funding. To qualify you must be in receipt of one of the following:
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Universal Credit, and your household income is £15,400 a year or less after tax, not including benefit payments
- child tax credits, and your household income is £16,190 a year or less before tax
- the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
- the Working Tax Credit 4-week run on (the payment you get when you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
2-year-olds can also get free childcare if they:
- are looked after by a local authority
- have an education, health and care (EHCP) plan
- get Disability Living Allowance
- have left care under an adoption order, special guardianship order or a child arrangements order
If your child is eligible, you can start claiming the term after they turn 2. The date you can claim will depend on when their birthday is.
Parental Statement of Undertaking Form
Parents are required to complete a Parental Statement of Undertaking (PSOU) form, stating how many hours of funding parents wish to claim. This form must be completed at registration and if there are any later changes to funded sessions. Parents will also need to provide their child’s birth certificate when registering their child for the first time.
Registration
If you wish to enquire about a place for your child, please click on the link here and we will contact you to arrange a visit.
Once we have this, your child will be added to our waiting list if you do not need an immediate start. We will the contact you, usually 6 to 8 weeks before your child's proposed start date to arrange for you both to visit pre-school.
If we cannot accomodate your child we will also let you know at this time. If you have a particular date by which you need to know if your child has a place, for example if you are returning to work after maternity leave, please let us know when you enquire.
Admissions process
Your child’s needs
When we invite you in for an initial visit with your child, you will have the opportunity to meet our lovely staff and our Early Years Teacher, who will discuss your child’s needs and current development.
This forms an important part of understanding your child and our plan for their entry into pre-school. Sometimes, we may need to delay a start or consult other agencies so we can get the best support for your child. We may also apply for additional funding to support your child. As part of our assessment we may offer reduced hours until we are able to fully assess your child’s needs and we feel they are ready to step up to more hours with the right support.
When making an offer of a place we consider the needs of all children in pre-school. In some cases we may not be able to offer a place due to the needs of individual children.
Initial baseline assessment
Once your child is admitted into pre-school, we carry out an important baseline assessment during the first month. This looks at all areas of learning, cognitive skills, communication and language skills, self-care and independence.
If we feel your child needs more support or is overwhelmed with the hours that they attend, we may reduce your child’s hours with a gradual increase over a period of time until we feel they are able to cope. Support will be given to help your child do this.
Occasionally, and very rarely, we may withdraw the place and discuss with you the reasons why. We may direct you to other agencies or specialist settings if we feel it is in the best interests of your child.
New Starter
We will then ask you to complete our New Starter pack with all the information we need after which we will be able to confirm your child's place. If we cannot offer your child a place their name will be added to the waiting list and we will contact you once a space becomes available.
Settling in
We offer 2 settling in sessions for our Pre-School room (3-4 year olds) comprising one session of one hour and one session of two hours based on your child's attendance pattern, either AM or PM.
Parents can opt for a settling in session prior to their funding start date or during the first week, can opt to collect their child early from their sessions. Sessions will be agreed with the Early Years teacher before starting. If we feel that your child needs additional settling in sessions, we will discuss this with you.
Settling in weeks are usually:
Autumn - the week before the first week of FEEE funding (usually when the primary school children return)
Spring - the second week of December
Summer - the week before the Easter break
For our Nursery room (2-3 year olds) we will agree individual arrangements with parents.
Parent communication
At Greenfield Primary, we use a parent e-communications system called Parentmail PMX. Pre-School parents will be sent a text or email invite to register for the system once your child starts with us. This is a secure online system that enables parents to receive letters by email, text reminders and updates, pay for invoices and trips online and report absence. Parentmail works best using the free app available for android and iphones. You can see more about how it works by clicking here.
If you have a child at Greenfield and are already set up on Parentmail, your pre-school child will be automatically added.