Activeplay Nursery and Preschool Fees

Fees are payable per calendar month, in advance.  You will be issued with an invoice at the end of each month for the month following, and this will detail payments received, days booked and any arrears or credit carried forward.  We do rely on monthly fees being paid promptly.  They should therefore ideally be paid before the 10^th of the month, if possible.  Chasing up unpaid fees is time consuming and therefore any unpaid fees that run over into the following month will be subject to a 5% penalty, unless arrangements have been made for a late payment with the nursery manager.

We can accept fees by credit card in person, by bank transfer (to Nat West account 37306340, sort code 51-70-14 in the name of Activeplay Nurseries Ltd) by the government’s tax free childcare scheme and by any childcare voucher scheme.  We can also accept cheques and cash; in the case of cash you will be given a written receipt for the payment.

Persistently late or unpaid fees may, with written warning to the parent, be forwarded to a debt collection agency for collection, and a late fee of £50 will be added in such cases towards our costs, in addition to any fees added at the agency’s discretion.  As a final resort, we will apply to the County Court in respect of deliberately unpaid fees.  PLEASE talk to us if you are having difficulty with fees – we can help.

We will ask you for a deposit of £30 when you register your child at nursery, and this will be deducted from your first month’s invoice.  This is to avoid the (unfortunately increasingly common) practice of parents booking a space at a number of nurseries and then deciding nearer the time which one they want to take up. If this will cause financial hardship, or if you have difficulties with fees at any time, please let us know as we will always try to accommodate parents.

We have two sessions per day; morning session is 7.30am – 12.50pm, afternoon session 1.10pm – 6.30pm.  We offer a slightly reduced daily rate if you are booking a full day rather than a half day.  Absences will be charged, except if you book a holiday or absence from nursery, of up to 2 weeks at a time, and give a minimum of one month’s notice.  You can book a maximum of 4 weeks in any year, pro rata to the number of days per week your child attends; for example if you pay for 2 days per week, (regardless of any free entitlement days) then 4 weeks’ holiday would equate to an annual total of 8 days.  This also applies if your child only attends for their free entitlement, in order that we do not charge you for meals during a period of holiday absence.  We are, however, a full time, not a term time nursery, and continue to operate, and fully employ all staff, during school vacations and half term breaks.  Unfortunately we therefore cannot simply accept parents giving notice of wanting to take all school vacation periods as holidays.

All meals, drinks and snacks served during the day are included in the prices, except for meals taken during attendance covered by Early Years Free Entitlement, in which case we make a charge of £1.60 for breakfast, £3.10 for lunch and £2.50 for tea, as meals are not covered by the entitlement.  (No charge is made for snack times)  It is however, usually possible to arrange your free entitlement hours to avoid mealtimes and therefore avoid these charges if you wish.  Please note that the cost of meals includes not only the food cost, but makes a contribution towards staff cover at mealtimes and preparation/cooking.

Any extra top up hours beyond your 15 or 30 hour entitlement are charged at £8.50 – unless of course these equate to a full or half session).

If your child already has a sibling currently at the nursery, we are pleased to offer you a 10% discount on the fees for the second and subsequent children enrolled.