Funding

Every child attending The Mulberry Bush Nursery will be entitled to free nursery education, up to a maximum of five 2½ hour sessions per week for each week of the term.
 
The above becomes an entitlement in the term after your child is 3 years old.
 
There are however, some important factors to mention:
 
1.      We can only provide 5 x 2 ½ hour sessions if places are available.  A whole day will count as 2 sessions.
 
2.      As our morning /afternoon session is longer than 2½ hours and our whole day longer than 5 hours, you will be required to pay for additional time.  These shall be referred to as ‘top up fees.’
 
3.      As the nursery is open all year round, your child is welcome to attend during the school holidays, but any sessions over the funded entitlement will have to be paid for in full.
 
4.      The entitlement is issued for the whole term, therefore should you change establishments or reduce session numbers during the term you will lose your entitlement for the remainder of that term.
 
5.      In the event of there being more children than places available we shall give priority to funded four year old children then funded three year old children.
 
6.      If a parent/carer requests a place for 2 sessions, which blocks a place for a child wanting 5 sessions, then priority shall have to be given for those needing the greater number of sessions.
 
7.      We shall not refuse a place on the grounds of a child’s attainment, gender,  race, religion, language, culture or any special educational needs the child may have.
 
The Mulberry Bush will be funded for the ‘free’ time by a grant, which we will receive directly from the L.E.A.  We receive our funding termly and for this reason it is much simpler to invoice you for ‘top up fees’ monthly.
 
If your child attends, for example, 3 sessions at The Mulberry Bush and 2 sessions at their local playgroup the grant will provide funding pro-rata, i.e. we will receive 3/5 and the playgroup 2/5.
 
You will need to discuss availability of places with us and we will provide you with a declaration form, which you must complete and return to us.  We must also sign to say that we have seen evidence of your child’s date of birth.  We then have to submit your child’s details to the L.E.A., together with the agreed number of sessions your child is attending for. If your child attends with another provider we shall make contact with them to confirm how many sessions you shall be using with them.  You will not be eligible for funding exceeding more than 5 sessions between both practitioners.
 
Children receiving grant funding may choose not to attend The Mulberry Bush Nursery during the recognised half term breaks, Easter, Summer and Christmas Holidays.  PLEASE INFORM US IF YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO ATTEND TERM TIME ONLY. They will then not be entitled to holiday on top of this or refund for sessions missed during term time.  Also it is not possible to swap sessions for children who are absent from nursery due to illness.  This would not be an option if your child were attending state nursery provision.  If you choose to take your holiday during term time, we can only refund you the top up fees for those sessions and not the full amount which has been subsidised by the government.