To Be The Best That We Can Be
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:
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:
Where applications are received after the close of the admissions round, places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
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.