Please note this handbook is currently being updated with 2024 - 2025 in mind.

Location

Our base camp is
252nd Scout Hut, Stonechat Gardens, Stapleton, BS16 1UQ.
This is where you will drop off and collect from.

Parking

The car park next to the scout hut is strictly for residents and their visitors only. They allow Kindergarten employees to use the car park but we have had issues in the past with parents parking in the spaces. It is, therefore, necessary to park on one of the side streets in Stonechat Gardens and walk through to the scout hut. We apologise for any inconveniences this may cause but we must respect our neighbours wishes.

Timings

Our kindergarten day runs from 8:00-15:30. Children can arrive anytime between 8:00 – 9:00. This allows for a flexible drop off when children can settle in and play with friends. You must arrive by 9:00 at the latest.

Collection time is any time between 15:00 and 15:20. If you would like to talk to your child’s key person please allow yourself time between 15:00 and 15:20 and keep in mind that we close at 15:30.

Please see further down for after kindie session times.

Arrival/drop off

On arrival, a member of the team will welcome you at the main gate and sign your child in for the day on our Famly app.

For their own safety, we encourage all parents/guardians to walk with their children to the main entrance. Do not let them run ahead and please wait with them whilst they are signed in.

Please see our 'Settling in Sessions' underneath and our settling-in policy.

Once on-site, children are further greeted by their key person and will self-register, supported by their key person. They will place their belongings in their allocated ‘box’ (to share with one other child). In addition to a box for their belongings, pegs are available to hang up coats/extra clothes on in the colder, wetter months.

Departure/pick up

Parents are encouraged to collect their children from the garden at the end of the day. This will allow parents the opportunity to come on-site and speak with their child's key person.

You can collect your child from 15.00 onwards but we kindly ask that it’s no later than 15.20. This allows time to gather children’s belongings and speak with the key person. If you need to collect your child earlier than this, please try and let us know in advance.

When you collect your child, we will sign them out on the Famly App. We will only allow children to leave with someone who is named on Famly as a contact. If you would like someone else to collect your child you will need to add them as a contact on your child's profile page and give them a password which you can write on the 'extra info' part of the contact page.

After Kindie Club

We provide longer hours on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (and as of September 2024) Thursdays in the form of an after kindie club. We provide a light tea at a cost of £1.50 (this fee is removed if self funding the session).

The session runs from 15.30 –17.30 at a cost of £15.00 per session and must be pre-booked. You can use the government-funded hours to cover the cost or pay for additional hours. A 6 week cancellation policy is applied if you give notice on your place. If you wish to book on to the after kindie club, please email admin@outtherekindergartens.co.uk. Please note that places are limited. If you require a place later in the year and we are ‘full’ you can be added to a waiting list.

Please note spaces are limited to 22 children a day.

You can collect your child at any time during ‘after kindie’ but we kindly ask that it’s no later than 17.20. This allows time to gather children’s belongings and speak with the key person.

Please read further down for more details about after kindie.

Settling In Sessions

We require that the children do the following settling in sessions:

Week 1: 9:00 – 12:00 noon (no packed lunch required)

Week 2: 9:00 – 14:00 (packed lunch required)

Week 3 as normal: 8:00 – 15:20 with after Kindie available from week 3 15:30 - 17:30

During the initial settling in period, parents are able to come on site and settle their child for the first 15 minutes of the day between 9.00 and 9.15.

After this initial settling in period, we encourage all parents and carers to say goodbye at the gate. This forms part of our settling in our policy. In our experience, and that of our parents, this approach works really well for the majority of children. We have noticed that children are quicker to settle as a result. This may be to do with the fact that it puts the child in control as they are the one leaving the parent as opposed to the parent leaving them. Upon saying goodbye, the person at the gate will take your child to their key person who will be making those all important bonds. It may be that your child is upset at drop off but their key person will have ideas for how to alleviate any sadness.

We suggest bringing in a settling-in pack to the ‘all about me’ meeting which can then be used in the first few weeks. This pack can contain a familiar toy, a favourite book and a few family photos.

The good news is that usually, within 10 minutes or so of the parents having said goodbye, we are texting parents and sharing photos of their child smiling and having fun. However, if a child is particularly distressed and inconsolable we will always phone the main carer/main contact so that they can either come and be with the child or collect them to take home. This happens very rarely.

We also recognise that all families are unique and some children might find it more difficult to separate from their main carer. We are therefore flexible in our approach and will work with individual families to come to the right arrangement for them.

It is worth sharing how you feel about drop off with your child's key person at the ‘all about me’ meeting. We may also suggest a home visit depending the needs of the child, and of the back of the all about me form and meeting.

Please speak to the manager in person or over the phone if you'd like to discuss your child’s ‘settling in’ time with us in more detail.

Please see our settling-in policy for more details.

Important: If paying for your child’s place you will be invoiced for a normal session price and no discount is offered during our settling in weeks. We will invoice you for After Kindie from the third week onwards.

Term Dates

We are open for 38 weeks of the year. For this reason, we start back the week after most schools. For the remainder of the year, we follow the Bristol term dates up until the summer break when we break up earlier than most schools.

• Term 1: 2 September 2024 to 25 October 2024 (8 week term)

• Term 2: 4 November 2024 to 20 December 2024 (7 week term)

• Term 3: 6 January 2025 to 14 February 2025 (6 week term)

• Term 4: 24 February 2025 - 4 April 2025 (6 week term)

• Term 5: 22 April 2025 to 23 May 2025 (5 week term)

• Term 6: 2 June 2025 to 10 July 2025 (6 week term)

  We are open for 38 weeks a year (this differs to schools who are open for 40 weeks a year)

Contacting us in regards to sickness or in an emergency

If you need to inform us of your child’s absence, either sickness or holiday, please mark this on famly on your child’s profile.

https://help.famly.co/en/articles/4912433-parents-report-your-child-s-absence#h_1dd6b6f3c2

If you need to contact us in an emergency, please call the numbers below in order.

Pilar Fernández De La Vega - Kindergarten Manager: 07954 416147

Jenny Brough - 07948 674811

All staff are trained in Child Projection or Advanced Child Protection. The majority of the team, if not all, are first aid qualified (12 hours or Outdoor). For further staff details, qualifications and training, please visit our employee page:

If a key person is on training or off sick, the manager will often be with the key group or a suitable person in to cover and take on their key person role. We use a regular team of bank staff. On occasions, we will also have students and volunteers working alongside us. All of our staff and volunteers have relevant experience and/or qualifications and are DBS checked.

The full address is : Out There Forest School and Kindergarten
Based at 252 Scout Hut, Stone Chat Gardens, Stapleton BS16 1UQ.

The Manager can be best contacted through Famly messaging.

https://help.famly.co/en/articles/4912443-parents-send-a-private-message

For general enquiries, funding and invoicing please send your email to: admin@outtherekindergartens.co.uk

If you wish to speak to Jenny Brough (Registered Ofsted Person), please phone 07948 674811 or email jenny@outtherekindergartens.co.uk

We expect children to come prepared to go straight out for the day. This includes arriving in their waterproof suit and wellies. The only time when we would not expect children to arrive in waterproofs is in high summer when the weather can be just too hot.

Below is a guideline for what to wear throughout the seasons but please check the forecast the day before to ensure your child is dressed appropriately.

Children will also need to have a complete change of spare clothes, including footwear, socks and underwear. We will take our supply of extra clothes to the woods for emergencies, and children’s spare clothes will be left at the base to change into on their return (if necessary).

Please note that we strongly advise that children wear long trousers, a long-sleeved top and closed-toe shoes whatever the weather.

Please send children in old, well-worn clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty and in wellies or waterproof boots, with a pair of trainers or walking boots/shoes in their bag to change into if their outdoor ones get wet. We request that children bring their spare clothes, water bottle, and packed lunch in a child-sized, (ideally) waterproof backpack, ready to go straight out for the day.

The children will be wearing these, so keep this in mind when purchasing bags. Backpacks with straps across the chest are ideal for preventing the bag from falling off their shoulders.

Please avoid sending your child in T SHIRTS, shorts, skirts or sandals.

(this is due to the risk of tick bites)

Recommendations (Not affiliated links)

Packed Lunch

Daysack/Rucksack

We request that children bring their spare clothes, water bottle, and packed lunch in a child-sized, (ideally) waterproof backpack, ready to go straight out for the day.

The children will be wearing these, so keep this in mind when purchasing bags. Backpacks with straps across the chest are ideal for preventing the bag from falling off children’s shoulders.

We have our own unique curriculum based around our rhythms and routines of the day, the seasons, our locality, nature connection, food exploration, cultural festivals, local trips and, most importantly, the children’s needs and emerging interests.

Our curriculum is rooted in the natural world and the natural unfolding of children’s curiosity and fascination in the world.

We are inspired by various approaches to early years education. To find out more about our approach to early years education and the benefits of outdoor learning and development please follow the links: http://outtherekindergartens.co.uk/our-vision- and-ethos

We have also found this useful guide about outdoor play and exploration which clearly sets out many of the things we aspire to at Out There Kindergarten. Interestingly, the guide has been produced by the Froebel Trust, who are strong supporters of Friedrich Froebel, who invented the term Kindergarten which translates as 'children of the garden'.

As an Oftsed registered provision, we must also meet the legal requirements of the Early Years Statutory Framework and, in relation to learning and development in the early years, the 7 areas of learning as defined by the Department of Education. These are;

• personal, social and emotional development.

• communication and language.

• physical development.

• literacy.

• mathematics.

• understanding the world.

• expressive arts and design

Through ongoing formative assessment, we observe, assess and plan for each child’s individual learning and development in these key areas. There is a strong focus on the 3 prime areas and we have a very holistic approach to how children learn and develop in these areas.

As a guide, we use the Birth to 5 matters document which is rooted in the 3 principles of the early years foundation stage; a unique child, positive relationships and an enabling environment provides the necessary ingredients for learning and development. There are some children who might need additional input , on top of these key ingredients, and this might come in the form of early interventions such as making a referral to a speech and lanaguge therapist or assessing a child for additional needs and then putting support in place for the child in order for them to access our curriculum.

The birth to 5 matters document is written by professionals in the early years sector for people working in the early years sector. Further information for parents can be found here

For more information about learning and development in the early years, you might also want to look at the following documents. They offer a broad range of educational perspectives. We have also included developement matters, which is non statutory government guidance.

A Froebelian Approach to Outdoor Play and Exploration

Development Matters

Forest School

Forest School is an innovative educational approach to outdoor play and learning originally developed in Denmark for pre-school children. Children attending Forest Schools were arriving at school with strong social skills, the ability to work in groups effectively, and generally, children had high self-esteem and confidence in their own capabilities. All these attributes proved to be an effective foundation that raised academic achievements. This ethos was introduced to the UK during the 1990s and has been taken on as an effective educational tool in a variety of settings.  

Forest school is outdoor, nature-based learning that focuses on the holistic development of the child. In forest school, activities are provided, but rather than being adult-led, each child chooses and tailors the activity to suit them, while we observe their preferences and development. We flow with the energy of the day and follow what children want to do. Forest school is child-centered with a high adult-to-child ratio. Observation, rather than direction, is key, and children learn to care for the natural environment through their activities.

Forest school helps children develop many skills that are hard to teach in the classroom. It’s very physical so it encourages children to be active, with lots of activities to develop both fine and gross motor skills. Children learn to assess, appreciate and take risks, making sensible, informed decisions about how to tackle the activities and experiences they encounter. They learn to be self-sufficient and take care of themselves, which boosts their confidence and self-esteem. Through trial and error, they learn to deal with failure and develop the resilience to keep trying: a vital skill in the classroom as well as outside.

Forest school ties in with many areas of the National Curriculum. For example, being outdoors year-round helps children learn about weather and the seasons, which are part of the program of study in geography, studying mini-beasts and plant life relates to the science curriculum, and working on tasks like den building and woodwork links with design and technology. Children also benefit from the simple act of being outdoors. Research has shown that it improves mental health, communication skills and social relationships, among other things.

https://forestschoolassociation.org/history-of-forest-school/

There is no such thing as a typical day, as every day is unique and special. We are also governed by the seasons, and the weather, meaning our winter and summer routines are different as a lovely, dry, sunny day is different to a very windy day.

However, we do have certain routines and structure which will benefit your child and prepare them for the next stage of their young life’s journey. Rather than narrowly focusing in on being 'school ready', we like to widely focus out and consider how the rhythms and routines of the day, mixed with our educational philosophy, help young children prepare for being ‘life ready’.

The day is packed full of nature-based play and practical, hands-on learning and exploring. At lunchtime, children enjoy a packed lunch (provided by you) around the fire circle and reflect on their morning experiences. We finish our day off with some quiet time back at the scout hut, where children can relax and unwind with stories, music, yoga and mindfulness.

Before starting with us, your child will be allocated a key person. You will be notified before your child starts with us as to who your child’s key person is. A key person is someone that takes on the role of a main carer in the absence of the parent. They help the child to settle in to the new environment by forming a close attachment and get to know the child’s individual needs so they know how to support them best. They provide comfort and support if the child is distressed and upset.

Aside from helping to meet your child’s emotional needs, the key person is someone who meets your child’s physical needs too. They will usually help them with such things as getting changed and toileting. Because of the close relationship they build, a key person is also a main point of contact for you, as they give feedback on your child’s day and talk about their learning.

ALL ABOUT ME - PARENT AND CHILD VISIT

 These take place before your child starts with us, and we ask that your child attends with you. This is very important to us and will help us assess whether your child would benefit from a home visit. We will ensure there are some toys out, and they may get the chance to go out in the garden with one of the team. For children starting in September 2024, the meetings will take place on Thursday 29th August.

Before the meeting, you will be asked to complete an all-about-me form. This form is passed on to your child's key person. The more information you can include, the better. This helps us to get to know your child, you and your family better.

As part of our settling-in policy, we ask new starter parents to bring a settling-in pack to the All About Me Meeting. This pack might contain a family photo or photos, a special you and a favourite storybook. Please have it in a clear bag with your child's name.

COMMUNICATION in an emergency

To contact us in an emergency, please use the phone numbers provided here

Pilar Fernández De La Vega - Kindergarten Manager: 07954 416147

NON URGENT COMMUNICATION

For non-urgent communication, the managers and key people prefer to use Famly newsfeed and messaging.

https://help.famly.co/en/articles/4912443-parents-send-a-private-message

‘The office’ team communicate by email but occasionally puts posts out on Famly newsfeed if it concerns everyone.

THE FAMLY APP

Before starting with us, you will have already been sent a ‘sign up’ request from Famly (requested by Out There Kindergarten). It's important that you have filled out the important 'about' section, added emergency contacts and checked permissions. You will be notified and required to read and check if there is any new permission.

We use Famly to share photos, activities, observations and assessments of your child’s learning and development. By registering with Famly, this information will be readily available to you. At the end of your child’s time with us, we will have woven their learning and development journey. It's a really great record of their time with us, and you can look back at all the lovely photos with your child to talk about their time with us.

To find out more about Famly, please ask a team member, or you can go to their website, which has a section for parent users of Famly.

The parent who first registered with us will have control of the Famly account. You can add a partner and other family members to allow them access to your child’s profile. The article below helps with this.

https://help.famly.co/en/articles/4912365-parents-add-or-remove-your-child-s-contacts

If you are not receiving Famly communication, please email admin@outtherekindergartens.co.uk.

NEWSFEED ON FAMLY

We share lots of important information on Famly.

• weekly updates on what the children have been up to

• information about family events

• information from the children’s centre and about school places

Please ensure you keep FAMLY notifications on so you don’t miss anything.

HOME LEARNING

We share ideas for home learning via Famly news posts, focus activity posts from your child’s key person and through your child’s observations. If you would like to discuss ideas for home learning, please speak with your child’s key person. 

Family Afternoon 

Family afternoons occur towards the end of the day, usually at the end of a term on a Thursday. They are an opportunity to come and socialise with other families and spend time with your child in the garden. We often share food, music and stories and celebrate the children’s achievements with you. You will be invited via Famly.

Parental Involvement 

We love getting parents involved in what we do. We'd love to invite you in if you have something fun and interesting to share with the children. In the past, we’ve had a beekeeper show off his bees and honey, an acrobat who performed the circus and a break dancer who taught breakdancing to young children. 

OPEN DOOR POLICY

We also operate an open-door policy with parents, which means you can talk to a staff member without making an appointment. The time to do this is at the end of the day when collecting your child. Please arrive close to 15:00 if you wish to speak with the child’s key person.

Safeguarding and Child Protection at Out There Kindergarten

Please make sure you familiarise yourself with the settings Child Protection Policy.

We consider this to be our most important policy.

Our reporting and recording policy supports our child protection policy. You can read this here. At Kindergarten we keep a record of accidents, pre existing injuries, incidents and safeguarding concerns. There may be times when you receive one of these forms from us. This will be either sent through FAMLY or electronically via email. Depending on the nature of the incident or concern, you will receive a phone call from your child’s key person, a the senior member of the team or our Designated Safeguarding Lead to discuss this with you in person before any forms are sent out. If you would like to see an example form, you can access the links to the forms in the policy.

We want to develop a safeguarding community in which we all contribute to keeping children safe. We aim to promote an ‘open culture’ whereby parents and carers feel confident in stating any concerns, either formally or informally about children who attend our setting and even those who don’t. We have a responsibility to safeguarding all children.

The designated safeguarding person for the Stapleton Kindergarten is Pilar Fernandez De La Vega. She is supported in her role by Jenny Brough, Director and Registered person. Please keep an eye out for any information they might share with your in regards to Safeguarding issues such as online safety.

Please also make sure you are familiar with the sickness reporting procedure, which you can find on our website's Policies and Procedure page.

We have a range of other policies in line with the Early Years Statutory Framework. These support our everyday practice and ensure we are all working to safeguard the children in our care. To read our policies and procedures online, please follow or type in your browser this link: https://outtherekindergartens.co.uk/policies-and-procedures.

If you have any questions about our policies and procedures, please speak to the Kindergarten manager.

Permissions, Information sharing and Terms and Conditions

Please make sure you have ticked all of the ‘permissions’ on Famly, either yes or no. We must have your consent for such things as; going off-site to local woods/parks, taking part in forest school activities and administrating first aid. Where we do not have your consent, we will ensure this information is shared within the team and act accordingly.

This also applies to information sharing. There may be times when we need to share information with other professional agencies. For example, transferring your child’s records to school or leasing with the child’s other childcare setting.

We would love your permission to take photos and videos which we can share on social media and other platforms. This really helps us to showcase your amazing children at play in the woods, our fantastic work and with promoting oursleves to potential families and employees. There is a permission for this to check or not check.

We are adding in a new permission this year which relates to the blurring out of children’s faces on photos so that if you do not want to show your childs face but are okay for them to be blurred out, this can be arranged.

Our Terms and Conditions for Funded and Non Funded Hours are also in the permissions section on Famly with a link to the relevant policy. This is an important policy as it lays out our fees, including the sustainability fee for those using the funded hours and our cancellation policy when it comes to cancelling your place.

Our top priority is ensuring the children are safe at all times, whether that is playing in the garden, the public woods or walking on the pavements by a busy road. We have very thorough risk assessments and policies that ensure children’s safety.

We have 28 children on the register each day. However, due to sickness and absence the numbers are often lower than this and fall between 23 - 26.

We have 6 core team members (1 manager, 4 key people and 1 early years support person) which means we have higher adult: child ratios than many traditional nursery or preschool settings to account for going off site. If every team member is in attendance our ratios are 1:5. We also often have additional adults such as our early years support workers, volunteers, students and 1:1 support meaning that there is an even higher adults to child ratio.

Children must always be within sight of the adult, and vice versa, meaning they are supervised at all times. The key person and their key children also wear the same colour high viz whilst out, to support head counts, which happen frequently.

The walk to and from the woods is along a footpath, away from main roads. When walking on or near roads, we use a ‘walking bus’ system, with children in pairs, holding hands and adults strategically placed in the line. We have a ‘safety’ discussion at the start of each walk.

Although we use are public land, we see very few members of the public there during the day, apart from the odd dog walker, as it is off the main path. However, we use orange cones to mark our boundaries and children know they are not to go outside the cones. This is all covered in our ‘Forest Code’ which we go through at the start of every ‘Forest School’ session around the fire circle.

 Toileting

Children will be encouraged to use the toilets before we head out. When we are at one of our outdoor sites, we set up a toilet area (with a travel potty and windbreak). This is optional but offers more privacy and can be a comfort to children who are not used to ‘wild weeing’. All Children must ask an adult before they go to the toilet to ensure their privacy. We will support children with toileting as much as they need and work towards independence.

Although we would ideally like children be out of nappies, we cannot expect children to be fully toilet trained. We must also be prepared for toilet regression, as going to the toilet in our outdoor setting will be a new and potentially challenging experience for some children. We will equip ourselves for this, as we would do with any aged child when leading Forest School sessions. We have plenty of experience dealing with toileting in our outdoor setting and going prepared with a ‘toilet bag’, which includes spare underwear.

Naps

We often get asked about whether children can continue to nap once they start Kindergarten. As we are a child led setting, if a child requests to nap or is showing signs of falling asleep, we can support naps for individual children. However, we usually find that once the child starts with us they drop their afternoon nap due to being too engrossed in the day and their play. Naps can be, and have been, supported in the garden, indoors and even whilst out in the woods. The child’s key person will ensure the child is comfortable and kept safe and warm.

Please speak to your child’s key person at the all about me meeting if you would like to discuss this further.

We provide longer hours Monday to Thursday in the form of an after kindie club. We provide a light afternoon tea and engage the children in indoor or outdoor play. The session runs from 15:30 –17:30 at the cost of £15.00 per session and must be pre-booked as part of your ongoing weekly Booking Plan.

You can allocate government-funded hours towards the cost of After Kindie via the EYR1 Form. If you wish to book on to the after kindie club mid way through the year, please email admin@outtherekindergartens.co.uk.

Please note spaces are limited to 22 children a day and if there are no spaces available at the time of writing, you will be added to a waiting list.

Please note the following:

• We are a pack up/pack down ‘preschool’ and have to leave the place clean and ready for the scout groups which usually start from 18:00. In order for us to do this, we have certain strategies which allow us to be ready on time.

• One of these is to pack the resources away from around 17:00 onwards. During this time, we rely on the use of screen time ( a suitable, age appropriate t.v programme, usually from cbeebies). The children are often very tired at this point and this helps keep them calm and relaxed. Please speak to your child’s key person at the all about me meeting if you would like to discuss this further.

• On Thursdays, we operate our weekly team meeting. This will take place in the kitchen or in the main room behind room dividers.

• Please collect promptly. Ideally, parents will collect no later than 17.15 allowing time to collect belongings and speak to the adults if needed.

 As part of our curriculum, we incorporate several trips across the year. In the past, we have been to the harbourside, the downs, to the theatre and during the summer months to the beach. Depending on where we are going and the size of the group, we either use the local bus service or hire a minibus.

On such trips, we increase our adult to child ratio to 1:4 and call on parents and volunteers to join us. We inform parents beforehand of any trips taking place and about any trip costs. Some trips are FOC; some require you to pay the admission fee, and some trips a contribution towards the hire of a minibus.

We can hire a minibus from the Bristol Community Transport at a reasonable price through our Community Interest Company and ensure their insurance fully covers us.

Funded Places - applies to 2 yr olds from working families and 3/4 year old

You can use your government-funded hours to pay for all or part of your childcare with us. A place at Out There Kindergarten costs £56.25 a day (8:00-15:30) and we claim for 7.5 hours a day unless you are booked on for after kindie club, in which case we claim for 9.5 hours.

2 year olds from working families can claim up to 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year (please note that if attending another ‘all year round setting’ you can only claim up to 12 hours a week for 47.5 weeks of the year)

3/4 year olds - can claim up to 15 universal hours and up to 15 extended hours if eligible (please note that if attending another ‘all year round setting’ you can only claim up to 12 hours a week for 47.5 weeks of the year)

If you are eligible, we can offer the full 30 hours across four days to 3/4 year olds, and you can use your hours at any time, including for after kindie. You can also split your hours across two or even three other provisions.
If using the universal hours only, you can apply the 15 hours to 2 days a week by attending from 8.00-15.30.

If splitting your hours across two or more provisions, you may need to pay a top-up fee as your funded hours will be adjusted according to whether your other setting is all year round. We will calculate this for you based on the number of funded hours you allocate to us.

Before starting, you must complete and sign an EYR1 form. You can fill up an EYR1 form here.

1. The deadlines to submit the EYR1 form are the 1st of September, the 1st of January and the 1st of April. The council might not accept any form submitted after those deadlines, and you may lose your funded hours for the whole term.

2. You must renew your code every three months. It would be best to watch for email reminders from the gov. website. https://www.gov.uk/sign-in-childcare-account

For more information about the government-funded hours, please refer to www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.

Free early education for two year olds

If you're the parent or carer of a two year old and you receive certain benefits you could be eligible to apply for a free early education place. You apply for this via the Bristol City Council website. Please note that if you are eligible for a ‘FREE’ place you will not be charged the sustainability fee (see below).

You can find out if your eligible by following this link https://parent.bristol.gov.uk/web/portal/pages/parents/freechildcare

The quickest way to apply is online. You'll need a parent or carer's National Insurance number.

Apply for your place online

Please refer to our policy for more information on our funded and non-funded hours.

Sustainability contribution

We request that parents/carers contribute towards the delivery of our provision at the cost of £10.00 per day.

The following is taken from our local provider agreement with the council: Government funding is intended to cover the cost to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. It is not intended to cover the cost of meals, consumables, additional hours or additional services. 

It is, therefore, necessary that we apply a charge for morning snack, consumables and additional services.

The £10.00 fee goes towards the following and more:

Regular, if not daily, Forest School opportunities both onsite and off site.

Higher adult: child ratios to allow for these activities and frequent, off site local trips

Qualified Forest School leaders working directly with the children

A range of enrichment activities

Specialist Forest School resources

Organic morning snack

We call it a SUSTAINABILITY fee as without this additional income, our provision wouldn’t be able to operate according to our vision and values.

This SUSTAINABILITY fee is only applied to those using government-funded hours. It does not apply to those paying the daily fee of £56.25. You will be invoiced monthly through FAMLY for this additional contribution. To put this into real terms, if your child attends two days a week, we will request an additional £20 per week invoiced monthly.


We offer a number of 'free' places to ‘disadvantaged’ 2-year-old children and to children who are eligible for the Early Year Pupil Premium. If your child receives EYPP, you will not be charged the SUSTAINABILITY fee.

Paid for Places and Invoicing

We will invoice you on a monthly basis at the beginning of each month. You must pay your Invoices within ten days of receipt.

For any places which are paid for or part paid for, you are required to pay an administration fee of £25.00 either at the start of the year or if you start to pay towards your child's place at any point within the year. This will be added to your invoice.

Please use the Famly app to pay for your fees., except in the instance you wish to pay by childcare vouchers or the tax free childcare scheme.

We accept a variety of childcare vouchers. Our bank details are on the invoice but it’s really important you let us know when you have made payment and for how much. You can do this by emailing finances@outtherekindergartens.co.uk

We are registered with the following providers: 

Computershare: 0024135102

Eden Red: P21060292

Care 4: 22954380 

Sodexo: 845040

Kiddivoucher 

Busybees 

For Brislington the Ofsted registration number EY546746 and postcode BS4 4DY.

For Stapleton the Ofsted registration number is EY560249 and the postcode is BS16 1UQ

If you need any help with payment and the Famly App, visit the Famly Support Page: https://bit.ly/3hmqA3q or please get in touch with admin@outtherekindergartens.co.uk

Deposits

We require a £100 deposit to hold your place. Once you have a profile on FAMLY, we will send you an invoice for the deposit. Please make payment ASAP as this is how we guarantee your place. Whilst we are able to accept childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare account payments for monthly kindergarten fees, deposit payments must be made through FAMLY.

The deposit is refundable if your child starts attending the Kindergarten and will be returned upon your child leaving, provided your fees have been paid in full. Your deposit will not be returned if you withdraw your place before your child starts attending with us. 

 We have a unique reference number attached to the kindergarten in Stapleton.

The number is EY560249. You can find our Ofsted inspection report here.

The registered person is Jenny Brough. You can contact her on 07948 674811 or email jenny@outtherekindergartens.co.uk

If you have any concerns about our provision, please speak to the above-named person in the first instance.

If you wish to make a complaint, please refer to our complaint policy.