We know that early education can be a big expense for a family. But, there are plenty of ways to help with that cost. 

 

Private school early education is a fantastic investment in your child's future, setting them up for a lifelong love of learning and success. As Bill Gates said,

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"The first 5 years have everything to do with how the next 80 turn out"

 

We understand that getting to grips with all the funding options out there can be a bit of a minefield, so we've put together the basics here, to help you understand your options and budget.

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How can I use my funding entitlement to help reduce the costs?

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You can use your 3-4 year old 15 hours universal funding or your 30 hour extended funding code with Performatots, in blocks of 5 hours. Which equates to a half day or a full day session.

 

(If you have 30 hours to utilise, and you only do 2 full days, we claim for 20 hours funding on your behalf, providing your funding code is valid. We don't receive the full 30 hours funding, unless you actually use it with us.)

 

Unfortunately, as I'm sure you may be aware from recent media reports, the government don't fund early years adequately at all. They simply don't pay enough to sustain our wonderful setting and we only wish they funded us better, so we could deliver a 'free' early education. But, ultimately, they don't.

 

We think it's therefore confusing and can be frustrating for parents who have been thinking there are no costs involved when using funded hours. Funded hours don't include food/drink, direct tuition, outings, dance & drama lessons or consumables.​

 

We think it's best to be super transparent about the costs to use your funding at Performatots, so here's a little insight. We receive just over £5.30 per hour from the Local Authority and this is only paid to us for 38 weeks of the year, not the full academic year of Performatots, which is up to 46 weeks of the year. This isn't helpful to working parents either, as of course,most of us work more than 38 weeks a year!

 

We are grossly underfunded passes to us, and unfortunately each year the increase is nowhere near enough to cover the natural rise in costs There is a shortfall you can see in the funding rate, as our usual operating rate is circa £7.50 per hour.

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So, for us to explain and understand it better, we prefer to call it 'very welcome financial help' - as it's definitely funded and it's definitely hugely misleading to call it 'free childcare.'

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We rightly therefore charge for things like our freshly cooked meals, snacks, morning milk, all tuition & specialist classes, taught activities, outings and consumables. This gives us our funded day rate contribution. Please see the information below.

 

If we were a packaway, packed-lunch play-group in a church hall run by volunteers, we might just about be able to open the doors and provide a £5 an hour babysitting service, but as those of you who are already part of Performatots before your funding kicks in - it's SO MUCH MORE than that here.

 

Our graduate-led workforce are committed to professional development, hold excellent qualifications, undertake robust safeguarding training and offer exceptional levels of care. WE are so proud of our exacting standards, and for being recognised as a vibrant, early years curriculum that is now NATIONALLY AWARD-WINNING, and OFSTED OUTSTANDING! Our incredible, spacious environment means we rightly and fairly feel we are worth more than this an hour, to give your child an amazing start. Performatots is simply incomparable to any other setting in the area, but despite offering so much more, we always try to stay roughly in line with other chain nursery fees, to ensure accessibility (which is one of our core values.)

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3 & 4 YEAR OLD FUNDING​

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Your child is eligible for 15 hours funding from the term AFTER they turn 3. There are only up to 38 weeks each year that are called 'funded'. We are open for 45 weeks of the year.

 

There is a charge for funded days, which covers your child's breakfast/lunch/tea, mid-session snacks and milk, all consumables, all tuition classes in the day, special school events and visitors, all clubs and adventure afternoon outings and all taught afternoon activities, such as football or yoga. Basically, any fees are pretty much all-inclusive. We won't be billing you for any extra charges.

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For non-funded days we charge our usual session rate. This is then added up together and divided across 11 months of the year. There is no payment due in August at Performatots, unless you would like August care, through our summer school programme.

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HOW MUCH WILL I CONTRIBUTE ON FUNDED SESSIONS?

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You can book sessions and apply your available funded hours. When applying funding to your tuition fee bill, your contribution to your child's time for an enhanced curriculum option at Performatots would be:

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Full Day Sessions: £26.80 per session

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Half Day Sessions: £18.50 per session

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We add up all funded and unfunded sessions in the year and divide across the months, to give you one rolling monthly amount that stays the same each month. This can help you budget and makes it easy to pay in advance on the 1st of each month via automated payment.

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You get the best value from your funding by booking in for the full day, but half days, or a before te-time pick up are an option for you, no problem at all.

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If you would like to receive a personalised quote to see what your costs would be, over your funded hours, please just get in touch.

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Please note that if you are eligible you can access a fully funded place at Performatots.

 

We also offer a zero-cost funded place for eligible 3-4 year olds on a scholarship scheme, term-time only. Please contact us to discuss available options, if this applies to your family.

 

How Could I Save More?​

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Remember that if you apply for and pay via the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme (or your workplace may operate a Childcare Voucher scheme) you save 20% by paying in this way. The government will top up your childcare account by 20%. Ie. When you put in £100, they put in an extra £20. It's a great benefit for working families.

 

If you are on Universal Credit, you could be entitled to be reimbursed up to 85% of your bill. You will need to speak to your UC coach to find out if you are eligible and if you need any receipts/letters to support your application for reimbursement, just let us know, we are happy to help provide evidence of payment/attendance where we can.

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