ADMISSION INTO PUDDLES NURSERY (3-4 YEAR OLDS) including Early Years Funding information

We have three admissions rounds per year for Puddles nursery (subject to availability of places), coinciding with the start of the three school terms: September, January and April (after the Easter Break).  Children are eligible to attend Puddles Nursery from the start of the term after their 3rd birthday. 

For each admissions round, we send out application forms in advance to families on our interest list, and these should be returned by the close of the admissions round (see below). If you download the application form from our website (bottom of this page), please ensure that it is returned by the close of the relevant admissions round: 

• For an Autumn Term 2023 (September) place, please ensure that we have your application by 19th April 2023.
• For a Spring Term 2024 (January) place, please ensure that we have your application by 8th November 2023.
• For a Summer Term 2024 (starting after the Easter Break) place, please ensure that we have your application by 21st February 2024.

In Puddles, we have a maximum of 52 places available in each morning session and 52 places in each afternoon session.  Provision in our Early Years Before/After School Club is shared by Raindrops (two year olds), Puddles (three-four year olds) and Sunshines (4-5 year olds); we can accommodate up to 32 children in each Before/After School session.  Children can attend any combination of sessions to suit your needs.

If, at the close of an admissions round, we have more requests than we have spaces available for any session, we follow the North Yorkshire Admissions Policy for Nurseries. Priority for places will be given as follows:

1. Children with an Educational Health Care Plan
2. Children who are recommended by the Director of Social Services, including children in care of the local authority, or by the Designated medical officer.
3. Children from homes disadvantaged by poor housing conditions or overcrowding, or from a background which is prejudicial to the child’s normal educational development
4. After the priority admissions shown above have been made, admission will then be made for children within the school’s normal catchment area. Allocation will be based on age, oldest first.
5. Children from outside the school’s normal catchment area will be allocated a place, those nearest to school first. Priority will be given to those with siblings already in the school and then to those living nearest to the school.

Where applications are received after the close of the admissions round, places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Early Years Funding for Three and Four Year Olds

From the start of the term after their 3rd Birthday, ALL children become eligible for 15 hours per week (term time only; equating to 570 hours per year) of funded childcare provision. This is known as Universal Funding. You do not need to do anything to apply for Universal Funding.

For working families meeting the eligibility criteria, a further 15 hours per week of funded childcare provision is available making a total of 30 hours per week (term time only; equating to 1140 hours per year).  This is known as Extended Entitlement Funding. To get Extended Entitlement Funding for your child, you need to apply online. There is a link below to the Childcare Choices website, where you can find more information about the eligibility criteria for this funding, along with links to the application website.

Both Universal and Extended Entitlement Funding can be used for any session in Puddles or in our Before/After School Club. If the attendance pattern that you choose for your child is equal to or less than the funding that they are entitled to, we will not make any charge to you for nursery time. If you'd like them to attend for longer than will be covered by their funding, we will charge for the additional time. Details of our charges are included in the document 'Puddles information for new applications Sept 2023' (below).

Please click below to visit the Childcare Choices website for more information about this funding and other sources of financial support for childcare costs.