Does government funding also apply to pre-prep?

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Does anyone know if the 5 free sessions per week at age 3 also apply to pre-prep schools (i.e. kindergarten at the prep school)? Are the schools obliged to accept them?

Near us some of the pre preps accept the vouchers and others don't. It depends whether the prep school follows the foundation stage and they do not select on academic ablity. (They also have to accept children with disablites and those in nappies)

they did when ds attended one a few years ago

my son has just started the pre prep of a new selective school and the school has just given me an application form for the funding . My daughter also had it even up to the end of reception. I think if they are ofsted assessed then they are entiled to it. Ask at the school if not ring your local boroughs education dept

They are not obliged to accept them and some don't.

DD's school does not accept the vouchers...grrr! I have no idea why.

Just to agree - you need to ask them if they do.

It did at ours but they have since been threatened with it being withdrawn as it depends on minimum number of termtime teaching weeks/hours and other criteria (set by LEA) so no guarantees. dd had it all through Reception , as an August b'day.

My DD is in the nursery bit of a private pre/pre-prep and they do accept the funding. The school is also registered to accept childcare vouchers for the younger children - I'm technically self-employed so don't get them, but DH works for a bank who do provide them. If you or your DH can get them via work, its worth checking whether the school will accept them.

it does at all the pre preps here

knocked about 20% off the huge fees

My dd is in the nursery of a private prep. They accept the funding and the school sent me a form to complete. They also accept childcare vouchers for those in the nursery.

tigermeow, you might find it is because they learned the hard way that the limited number of nursery/pre-prep places they offered were all taken by people who then withdrew their children when the funding ran out, causing chaos for continuity, the teachers and nursery nurses etc
Our school willingly accepts childcare vouchers though - it's not about denying families discounts

my boys school takes the vouchers - it's fairly selective. don't know how they work it exactly as plenty of cross border children there. At reception level it was quite a bit off the fees, so worth noting so you don't get a nsty shock in Y1 as one mum did.

DD's prep school follows Foundation stage in PP1, and also in their new pre school. This means that they can accept the nursery vouchers. I know this reduced our first two term's bill by quite a lot last year.

Thank you all - I'll make sure to ask when the time comes!

btu bear in mind you'd need to register early for a oprivate school nursery and policy could well change in intervening years.