Nursery fees after 3

[Cindy1802]

Hoping someone can help explain what our nursery fees will be when my son turns 3. I will be going on Mat leave around the same time so trying to figure out finances and what we can afford. (I've asked the nursery manager and she's just rubbish at replying to emails. Love the nursery but the admin from the office is pants)

The screenshot attached is example bills for 3 and 4 days in nursery with 30 free hours (top row 3 days, bottom row 4 days).

My son turns 3 in Feb and so I understand he will fall into the summer term category - but what I'm trying to understand is, until when? Am I correct in presuming it's calculated fees for the rest of the year, and at some point they will drop to the lower rate?

Might seem like a silly question but as I say, I'll be on stat Mat pay so really need to figure out finances for when I'll be off.

If he is born in February he should be eligible for 30 hours from Spring Term.

No it is the term after 3rd birthday, so April. If the fees are stretched that means the term-time funding (39 weeks) is averaged out over the year for period from Easter until September,

Fab that's what I wanted to know, the September bit. So in Sept his fees should drop down to the lower rate (in that screenshot in my original post?)

What time period is this for? Per month? Per term? It’s hard to make sense of the logic of the chart.

To give you an idea, what ours did was, for example for 4 days a week:

Funded hours 30x£0 = 0
Unfunded 2x£5 per hr = £10
Meals/snacks (£4 per day) 4x£4= £16

= £26 per week or roughly £104 per month (depending on days in a calendar month)

If you stretched your hours, it would be fewer funded hrs per week and more unfunded. We didn’t stretch so just paid the extra in months with non-term time.

I can’t work out from the figures above exactly what they are doing though.

It will start to apply in summer term (after they come back from Easter). Both of mine are also February babies.

It's per month - includes everything. They've outlined the breakdown fees in the main letter which is very confusing but shown this table of example monthly bills for 3 days a week and 4 days.

I am well aware of when his 30 hours will kick in, which is summer term, but what I'm trying to understand is, when will his payments drop to the lower rate as presumably I'm not paying the highest rate on that sheet until he goes to school? I'm assuming the fees are stretched to take us to a certain month when they will drop down, but I don't know when would be - but a PP has suggested September?

No thank you misunderstood . Each period varies as they differ in length but funding is fixed. The summer one takes into account the six weeks unfunded in July/August so the funding is stretched over a longer period between Easter to September.