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...

[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.

[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?

[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]

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).

[SleeplessInTheStaceym11House]

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

[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]

think its the same, oh even im confused now!

[LIZS]

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

[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.