stopping nursary for ONE month and related fees

[agacia]

Hello to all the mums.
I am a newbie here and could not find any thread concerning my question: does a nursery have right to ask me to pay half of amount for the period I want to stop my child to attend?
I am planning to send my little one for 10 days abroad so that he could spend some time with my family. Time before Christmas and NY my company is closed so I don't need childcare either as it is our special time together. That's why I thought about stopping the nursery for one month and save around £600.

When I registered my 3 year-old couple of months ago they told me only that one month notice was required. In addition to that in order to register a child again I would need to pay an administration fee (£50).
Today I was told that no place can be warrantied for my child unless I pay half of the month.

I know that for them it is a business which counts (they are very popular) and me as a single working mum can't afford the risk of finding myself without a childcare.
I am feeling it is unfair but probably I have no choice as no grandparents are available for us that time.
Please advise.

Agata

In my nursery I will have to pay full fee to keep my place. I registered when I was 4 mo pregnant or thereabout. I also give one month notice but I can guarantee my place is gone if I don't pay up. You can obviously give notice and reapply if you don't think they will find someone to fill your place.

So I think them giving you the option to pay half is very nice already.

Most places would be full fee, you are lucky they will except half and keep your place open. They are actually going to lose £300 a month as its unlikely they would fill the place for one month.
You say they are popular, they will probably have a waiting list and your space will be offered to someone else if you don't pay the retainer.

I'm pretty sure I'd have to pay the full fee as well. You're basically saying that you want to not pay them while you're on holiday, but they have to hold the place open and meet all their usual costs, so they will be losing out by only charging you half price.

Oh yes, they have the right!

With a month's notice of holidays, DD's wonderful not-for-profit nursery only charged 20% of fees during holidays, but I was always aware that they were an exception and we were lucky - DS's (chain) nursery used to charge full fees.