Can someone help me please - a few questions about schools/montessoris

[Quootiepie]

I have picked 2 preschools (dunno what you call them) for DS, one is attached to our local church, the other is a montessori. The fees are double for the montessori (still ok though) but it says something about vouchers - what are these voucher thingies? Do you get a certain number of hours paid for from 3-5? If so, do they apply to any kind of school from 3-5? Or just non private ones? THe montessori in the ofsted report said X amount of the children were funded - but then if you get vouchers for a set number of hours at any school, why do people not just go for the more expensive? I am very confused...

[fondant4000]

Montessori schools charge about double so the LEA grant covers about half the fees between ages 3-5.

Our dd goes to a Montessori, she started on 2 mornings a week at 2 years old. 3 mornings a week by 3 years old.

When she was eligible for the grant at 3.5 yrs we simply increased her sessions to 5 - 2 full days and 1 half day a week.

The fees have always been around £500 per term for us.

If we started sending her 5 full days it would get way more expensive for us as we'd have to fund all the other sessions entirely ourselves.

The LEA grant here is about £550 per term max.

The schools should be able to give you details of how much grant you will get depending on number of sessions, and how much you will actually pay depending on no. of sessions.

[LIZS]

NEG - Is that the Nursery Education Grant ? Yes think it is same.

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

think its the same, oh even im confused now!

[Quootiepie]

I meant is NEG what I am calling LEA funding? I presume it is. I am seriously getting cross eyes with this lot now!

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

NEG funded would be 5 morning or afternoon sessions a week, thats all

[Quootiepie]

aaaah, that makes sense. The church preschool was £8 a session, so was more in keeping with the funding thingy. My word this is very confusing (or I am just slow).

[Quootiepie]

ladymuck, think the £1000+ places were full time quotes, but pretty scary stuff! I would die if it was 5 sessions a week for £1000s a term!

[Quootiepie]

Age ranges: From 2 years To 5 years
Cost: £16.50 Per session (am),
£16.50 Per session (pm),
£3.50 Breakfast Club,
£3.50 Lunch Club,
£5.00 After School Care (per hour),
£50.00 Full day (8.30am-6pm),
NEG funded places: Yes
Other cost information: 10% discount for siblings.
Wheelchair access: Yes
Opening times: From September 2007:

Monday to Friday: 8.30am - 9.30am Breakfast Club
9.30am - 12.30pm Morning Session
12.30pm - 1.30pm Lunch Club
12.30pm - 3.30pm Afternoon Session
9.30am - 3.30pm Extended School Day
8.30am - 6.00pm Whole Day


Thats the school info - whats NEG funded? This 12.5 hours malarky?

[ladymuck]

X-post - yes Qpie - those are the limits of the funding. So whilst the Montessori charges £16.50 per session the LEA will only fund £8.77, leaving you to pay the rest.

[ladymuck]

Would you really expect to pay £1000s per term for 5 hours a week? Obviously when you get up to going for 5 session a week (which most people do prior to school) then you are looking at paying £500 per term after deducting funding. Up to you as to whether that is worth paying over the local state nursery or private playgroup which would typically be free from the age of 3.

[Quootiepie]

Those are the voucher limits I think, not the montessori fees

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

sounds reasonable, my dds pre-school sessions are £6.50 a session

[Quootiepie]

The table below shows the amounts that will be paid per week to a provider based on the number of sessions that a child is attending. If a child is attending two sessions and the provider is claiming for a 12 week term then the amount that the provider will be paid is £210.48 (12 x £17.54). There will be no refund to a parent if the amount paid for a funded session is less than the cost of a session that is not being funded.
One Session per Week
£8.77
Two Sessions per Week
£17.54
Three Sessions per Week
£26.31
Four Sessions per Week
£35.08
Five Sessions per Week
£43.85



Does that mean they will pay a max. of £8.77 per session? Max. of £43.85 a week?

[LIZS]

It depends what you want to do , I preferred half day sessions as they tire easily. You would n't get funding for lunchtime anyway whatever his age, but if you want to say work or do a course a day may work out better. Do they do all day , many preschools,nurseries etc are sessional am's or pm's only and depend on their vacancies. Surely you only have to decide now for March , long before the funding comes into it.

[Quootiepie]

£196 a term I was getting all in a fluster looking at various fees that ran into £1000's a term. The sessions stay the same price up until age 5 (when they don't do it anymore full stop)

[Quootiepie]

I think I am understanding it, am looknig up the LEA stuff now. If I started with 3 session, would it be 3 mornings or a day and a half? Is a full day too much?

[ladymuck]

Sorry - X post. You pay £16.50 per session. Assuming you do 2 mornings a week for 12 weeks in each term then you would be paying £396 per term. From the term after your child turns 3 you will be entitled to funding of around £200 per term, reducing your bill to £196.

However a number of playgroups and nurseries will aim to provide these session for the cost of the funding, so from the term after your child turns 3 you don't have to pay anything.

[LIZS]

That's right - you'd pay in full for that half hour and be subsidised/"free" for the 2 1/2. You won't get the vouchers for a year or so anyway, so I'd do the minimum in the interim , usually 2 or 3 session per week but it will vary. dd started at just over 2 and increased to 5 sessions within a few months.

[TheBlonde]

Call your local Childrens Info Service
They will be able to explain

[Quootiepie]

Sorry to be a pain, the school isn't in my area, does the LEA in the schools area have the info, of the lEA for my area?

[ladymuck]

The amount you get varies from area to area. Here I get £512 per term deducted from the fees provided ds2 does all 5 sessions (which he does as he is now in recpetion at a private school). If he only did 2 session though I would only get £200 per term, so I suspect that you will still have to pay fees for the Montessori

[Quootiepie]

Just seen something about they pay for 5 2 and a half hour session - so that means i'd pay 5 times 1/2 hour to top it up? Think I am still getting this wrong, there is amount limit also?

Oh, while I am at it, how long would you send a 2 yo to montessori for per week (regardless of what the vouchers pay for)?

[LIZS]

No you can't claim 12 1/2 hours just the 2 1/2 hours of the session. You may also not get the full amount reimbursed - we got just over £400 per 11/12 week-ish term - as they set a maximum amount per session. The LEA Early Years dept administer these vouchers, perhaps there is something on your Local Education Authority website ?

[TheBlonde]

Here is London it is currently worth £479 a term so £1437 per year

12.5 hrs for 38 weeks means they are only giving approx £3 per hour and we would pay the difference

[Quootiepie]

12.5 hours = just over 4 sessions at montessori - that's alot of free education, that can't be right? It's £16.50 a session, so £16.50 times 4...£66. I get just over £66 basically to send my DS to school a week? That seems an awful lot, I thought they paid for like 2 sessions. That's about 2 days!