Can’t afford the additional charges at nursery for my 3 year old

[Lilacbluewaters]

Hi,
my son recently started nursery attached to a school, he turns 4 in March. He receives the 15 funded hours. However the nursery have sent an invoice with additional charges for things like nappies. Wipes, extra activities, snacks and their app. I wasn’t aware of this and I can’t afford the extra £80 per month for this.
will I have to withdraw his place?

@crumblingschools but it sounds like the OP wasn't thinking of it as childcare. That's why she is confused why she is being asked to pay.

@Needmorelego I get that the OP might not be seeing it as childcare but your posts seem to suggest that no-one should use a school nursery as childcare

@crumblingschools I think some schools now taking children from 9 months is down to the new 30 hours for working parents scheme.
There needs to be more facilities for that to happen and in some parts of the country schools have less pupils in recent years so they have the space to have a childcare setting.

@crumblingschools a school nursery to me personally isn't childcare. It's pre-school education.
This is the problem in England - using the same word for childcare for babies and for a educational class within a primary school.
Perhaps we should use "daycare" and "pre-school" to show they are different.

I would provide my own wipes and see if its an option to bring in a snack. As for a breakdown of the £80 that seems a lot. When mine were at nursery it was something per term to cover snacks and they didn't let children be in nappies just the occasional pull up or have in underwear and they could help train them.

Plenty of school nurseries run school hours and absolutely are childcare. Ours takes kids from 3 years old, and they can go to the same breakfast / after school club as KS1, plus the school holiday clubs. I can't wait until DS is 3 and at the same place as his sister.
Why is private nursery for a 3 year old 'childcare' bur school nursery 'education'? Apologies for the continued detailing of the thread - I've treated them fairly interchangeably.

Say you will send in nappies, wipes and snacks and don't need an app.

I dont know. Im moving my son in Sept from private nursery daycare or whatever you want to call it; to a primary school ‘Nursery’ year group (the year before reception class so c. 3.5 years old)

As far as I can tell there is no difference in provision. Both using EYFS, both focused on play, free flow of indoors/ out and freedom to choices in activities. Both have uniforms (one optional and school one is mandatory).

So I think it depends on the nursery/school. They aren’t necessarily different.

It is a nursery attached to a school and they do get to go into the school for certain activities to prepare them for that reception transition. As I said, my son isn’t in nappies so doesn’t require these or wipes. He does a morning session every day but as someone posted they did less hours to cover the additional fees this is something I will look into. I feel £80 is an extreme amount especially when we are receiving the funded hours and we are in receipt of UC. They have however said that we have to pay and there is no option to not pay, k was hoping it was a voluntary payment.

@PinkDaffodil2 that's what I mean about the confusing way we use "Nursery" for different things.
To me a "childcare" nursery is one where children are there all day - from as early as 7 or 8am until as late as 6 or 7pm (not all children there all day but that's the hours they open.
They have nap time. They have dedicated changing areas. They have dedicated meal times. They have key workers not teachers. They don't have uniforms.
A school nursery is a classroom within a school. Children go for 3 hours. They are taught by a teacher.
They often wear the school uniform or a basic version if it. They do "school" stuff like play in the playground with the Reception class or go to assembly.
That is very different environments to me.
Maybe I am completely wrong but all the school nurseries I know of are like how I described 🙂

You need to query this with them then. They can't charge you for nappies if he isn't using them - nor wipes if the wipes are only used for those wearing nappies

I dunno. Will you ?

@Hoover2025 but will your child be at the school nursery the same hours as his current one.
School nurseries the sessions are usually only 3 hours long. A morning session and an afternoon session. Some children might go "full time" ie the regular school day but it means they might end up doing the same planned activities twice. Maybe it isn't different to what children do at private nursery.
I really don't know anymore....I've totally confused myself 😂
@Lilacbluewaters is the school a Local Authority school or an Academy School?
If it's LA I really can't see how they can make the charges compulsory. It just doesn't seem right at all.

It is a local authority school. I don’t see how they can make them compulsory. I have looked online and it states they are within their rights to charge but parents should not have to pay but I don’t really know how to fight this. They aren’t being very lenient

How many hours does he do

most 3/4yr do the free 15hrs and that’s ir

unless of course need childcare as parents working

never heard of a pre school charging for nappies and wipes - even more so if your child is pt

i would def query the invoice

only thing I paid was the 30m when did whole day 6hrs inbetween lunch and am /pn session which I think was £5 a day then

dd only did one full day

mon pm 1230/330
tue pm 1230/330
wed day off
thur all day 9-330 with 30m lunch £5
fri am 9/12

which was her 15 hrs when 3

@Lilacbluewaters Just saw your post about UC, I think you'll be able to claim the majority of the cost back then.

Yes same hours - short private day or normal school day.

They do offer daily activities yes. But the kids decide if they want to do them or just free play with the more permanent activity options.

I have no advice but just want to explain that the funding nurseries get doesn’t come close to covering the cost of a child so they have to charge to make up the shortfall. Some nurseries charge more than others - various reasons for this - some local authorities pay different amounts of funding could be one. Lots of nurseries have shut down becuse of the funding and the fact it’s marketed as ‘free hours’. They are trying to change the wording so extra charges aren’t a surprise.

I will say that you should have been made aware of the extra charges when you started though!!

I'm not quite sure about a couple of the points raised on this thread...

Three hours per day is mentioned a lot, but ours are 8:45-3:15 so "full" school days but the only charge is for lunch or supervision at lunch if taking a packed lunch.

If you are in receipt of UC they will cover 85% of fees/invoices. You just need to upload a copy of the invoice and they pay the next payment period.

If your in receipt of UC you can declare the £80 costs and you will get 85% of the £80 paid with your next months UC

Just out of interest - was this not discussed before you enrolled your child? Or did you miss the T&Cs? Because they can't just put on extra charges you didn't know about / agree to.

To add though, if your DS doesn't require nappies or wipes I would be questioning why you have to pay towards them

@Lilacbluewaters I would contact your local MP.
If you are just sending him 15 hours and it a LA school you shouldn't be paying anything.

Cross posted