I have a 3 1/2 year old son that started nursery September 2023. Since starting it seems there have been various things we were told that haven’t materialised.
During the sign up process we had the pick his days. Each day had an additional activity we chose Tuesday (dance) & Thursday (swimming) we later received an email just before he started to explain the nursery day and it didn’t mention the additional activities. We questioned it and they mentioned they’d decided the children would be too young at 2-3yrs old to do them so only 3-4yr olds would be doing them. Annoying as we would still be charged the same fee as if they were doing them.
The email also stated all children would receive a breakfast so the wait to snack time wasn’t as long and made for an easier morning routine for parents. So since September 2023 we hadn’t been giving him breakfast before sending him. He’d naturally say he’s hungry whilst I was getting him ready and I’d always say the same thing “it’s okay you’ll have breakfast when you get there”. We have just found out May 2024 he hasn’t been being fed breakfast at all - none of the children have. Breaks my heart that he’s probably been thinking I’ve lied to him all this time.
Prior to finding out the bit about breakfast we had questions about funding. I’d been asking since he started how much the fees would be once he gets funding in January 2024 as they don’t have the information readily available anywhere. No one was replying. I asked for the funding policy they said they didn’t have one. We finally received a quote from finance for what my son attends including the cost for additional activities which was £1511 per term - over £300 less than what we’d been charged. Asked for a breakdown they couldn’t provide one. The invoice I got had a line saying what the usual unfunded cost was then a line beneath it said minus 15hr funding @ £830.30 leaving the total at £1860 so appears they were charging top up fees and from what I’ve read they’re not allowed to give funding a financial figure either. Queried and they acknowledged it was wrong of them to present the invoice this way but the “top up fees” were the fees for consumables and additional activities with specialist teacher. I said he wasn’t doing additional activities (this was right at the end of the term and they said they’d get something in place) so for the last two weeks of term he did dance with the year above on a Tuesday and Thursdays activity was reading in the school library but with his usual room leader not a specialist teacher. Therefore we paid for a terms worth of additional activities with specialist teachers and only received 2 weeks but one activity isn’t a specialist teacher as promised.
I also asked if I could provide the consumables for him e.g lunch, snack, suncream etc to bring down the cost as per the funding legislation and they said I could but the rules change in April 2024 to make the consumables charge compulsory not voluntary so there was no point. I’m yet to find the new legislation that says consumables are no longer a voluntary charge.
Received an invoice for the summer term which was also above the original quoted amount. It was then that we found out about the breakfast too.
Questioned everything again and was told sorry for the misinformation about breakfast & fees we’d been sent the wrong information regarding both. But now struggling to know what to believe.
Can we contest any of this to get some of our money back. Are they allowed to quote one price and charge another ? Is there any ramification for not feeding my son breakfast when they said they would and that he’d been doing additional activities that have only just materialised? Where do we go from here. Desperately trying to see if we can find him a place elsewhere for September. But feel guilty as he does enjoy his time there and has made really good friends.
Any advice appreciated !!