Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions

Admissions Policy

It is the intention of Golden Owls Day Nursery to make our provision accessible to children and families from all sections of the community. Children may attend Golden Owls Day Nursery when they reach 2 years of age. A child can remain with us until the term before his or her 5th birthday. You can apply to register your child with us from birth. Please make sure you update us of any changes to your contact details over this period.

We operate our waiting list on a first come first served basis based on the availability of sessions requested, so we would recommend submitting your application as early as possible. Nursery Staff children and children already attending the setting have first option on sessions throughout the year.

Attendance:

We are flexible about attendance patterns to accommodate the needs of individual children and families, but ask that children attend for a minimum of two sessions per week. This is to ensure that children benefit from continuity and stability in their learning environment. If you wish to increase the number of sessions your child attends, you must notify the nursery in writing and you will be advised as to the availability for your child.

Opening Hours:

Golden Owls Day Nursery provides Full Day Care, term time.

Our opening hours are as follows:

Morning sessions run Monday to Friday: 8.00am to 1.00pm.

Afternoon sessions run Monday to Friday: 1.00pm to 6.00pm.

Full day sessions run from 8:00am to 6:00pm

Golden Owls Day Nursery operates as a term time only nursery. Please contact us for actual dates. Please note for the academic year 2025/26, we are open for 37 weeks of the year NOT 38 weeks (the usual number of weeks the funded hours are available during term time) in line with all SWAN Trust schools and nurseries, consequently you will only be able to claim your entitlement of funded hours for 37 weeks of the year at Golden Owls Day Nursery.

Leaving date:

We assume that all children will leave Golden Owls Day Nursery at the end of the summer term in the year which they start school. For more information on how to terminate your place earlier, please see our Termination and Cancellation section below.

Fees and Payments:

Golden Owls Day Nursery fees are set at a competitive level in order to maintain a sustainable and well equipped nursery setting. From September 2025 – August 2026, we will charge a sessional rate of £49.50 and a standard daily rate of £99.00 for all children. Please note fees are reviewed annually, usually in September and are subject to change, please see our website for up to date fee rates. Funded places will not be charged for unless additional hours are required.  We offer a 10% discount on fees for siblings who attend Golden Owls Day Nursery.

Fees are due monthly in advance and are calculated on a calendar month basis. Payment should be made within 7 days of receipt of invoice. Fees can be paid via bank transfer or childcare vouchers/tax free childcare. Each invoice clearly states our bank account details so a bank transfer can be set up, please check these details carefully. You may also be able to access childcare vouchers through your employer and these can be used as part or full payment of fees. The Government offer a Tax Free Childcare Account, we are registered with Goldsworth Primary School (Ofsted 137850) so if you would like to make payments via the Tax Free Account please choose Goldsworth Primary School from the list and let us know your payment reference. Each months invoice is due within 7 days of receipt. Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to charge a late payment charge of £10 per day, including weekends until the fees are paid in full.

Please note that our staff, our biggest cost, are paid annual salaries, this means that there is no reduction in fees where a child is absent due to illness, sickness, holiday or extended breaks abroad. We will provide written notice of at least one month if fees have to be increased.

Fees for the first month your child starts, or part thereof, will be invoiced a month before your child’s start date. If your child’s start date is within 14 days of starting, the payment must be made as soon as Golden Owls Day Nursery has written to you to confirm the start date. Fees are payable by the parents/guardians, individually and/or jointly, who have signed and returned the Application pack.

Late Payment of Fees

Each months invoice is due within 7 days of receipt. Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to charge a late payment charge of £10 per day, including weekends until the fees are paid in full.

Non-Payment of Fees:

If fees are not paid as agreed, the Nursery will note the delay and ask for payment in writing, stating that the child’s place could be withdrawn if payment is not forthcoming by a particular date. In the unlikely and unfortunate event that payment is not received, Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to terminate and/or amend this contract with immediate effect and withdraw the child’s place. Golden Owls Day Nursery also reserves the right to pursue non-payment of fees in the small claims court. We appreciate that if a family is experiencing financial difficulty, it may be hard to make full payment in one instalment. In such situations, and on a case-by-case basis, the Nursery may negotiate payment in alternative instalments.

Absences:

All fees are payable in advance for all sessions booked. No refunds will be made if your child is absent from Golden Owls Day Nursery, even if the absence is due to illness, holidays or other such reason.  If you are planning to be absent for more than 2 weeks please let us know as this may affect your funding claims. We have a responsibility to monitor the attendance of all children and ask parents/carers to keep us informed. We require at least a week’s notice for any planned absences. You are required to notify us by 9.30am on the day of attendance for any absences/illnesses. If contact cannot be made by the nursery after three consecutive unconfirmed absences the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board will be informed to seek advice.

Late Collection Charge:

You are required to inform the staff at Golden Owls as early as possible if you are going to be late collecting your child. This is to ensure that sufficient staff cover can be arranged. If a child is not collected before the standard finish time of a session, Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to charge a late collection fee of £10 per 15 minutes until the child is collected. Late collection charges are due for payment immediately upon receipt of your invoice.

Early Years Funded Entitlements

Golden Owls Day Nursery is approved to accept government funded early education (FEE) for children aged two, three and four years old. This funding entitles a child to have up to 15 or 30 hours of funded early education provision a week, during term time. Please check Surrey County Council (SCC) FEE webpage for information on cut off dates for eligibility as there are set cut off dates. Just before the first funding period that your child is eligible, you will be asked to fill in a SCC FEE Declaration Form. We will need to see your child’s birth certificate or passport as proof of identity and eligibility when submitting your application form. You will also need to complete a SCC FEE Declaration Form at the beginning of every funded period, stating the exact number of hours your child will be attending, duplicate and fraudulent claims may result in additional fees. For more information on dates and funding please see Surrey County Council’s web page at https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/families/childcare/paying/funded-early-education-for-3-and-4-year-olds

We offer FEET funded places (15 hours per week Funded Early Years Education for Two Year Olds’) for children aged 2 and over. For more information on eligibility and dates for this funding see Surrey County Council’s FEET web page at www.surreycc.gov.uk/feet.

Where a SCC FEE Declaration Form has been signed agreeing to take funded early education, Golden Owls Day Nursery will get secure funding for a funded period (term), unless there are exceptional circumstances. Once you have signed a declaration of attendance, you may not be able to transfer any funded early education to another provider during the same funded period (term). Please discuss with us first if you wish to claim at another provider as well as Golden Owls Day Nursery and this will need to be communicated on your SCC Declaration Form. A child who starts at a setting and claims either term time or stretched hours will have to continue with this offer until the funded period after their next birthday.

Funded Early Education — Working Parent Entitlement

Some 2, 3 and 4 year old children may be entitled to 30 Working Parent Funded Early Education hours.

Parents who are eligible https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/families/childcare/paying/30-hours-funded-childcare-for-working-parents will be able to access up to 30 hours of funded early education, which they can take in a variety of ways. Information can be found at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ including how to set up an account and make an application to determine eligibility. This will give parents an eligibility code which they’ll need to pass on to their childcare provider/s to show that they are eligible for the 30 hours of childcare. Parents must reconfirm their code every three months to show they are still eligible. Failure to do so will mean you are unable to use your funded hours and therefore may be subject to paying private fees.

Term Time Funded Hours

Please note we are open for 37 weeks of the year NOT 38 weeks (usual number of weeks the funded hours are available during term time), consequently you will not be able to claim your full entitlement of funded hours each year at Golden Owls Day Nursery.

Termination or Cancellation:

If you wish to remove a child from our setting or want to reduce the number of sessions attended, parents/guardians must give at least 8 weeks’ notice of the change in writing. Fees will be payable until that date, whether your child attends Golden Owls Day Nursery or not.. Funding will not automatically be transferred to another setting, please discuss with us.

Child Illness: 

If children appear unwell during the day and have a temperature, sickness, diarrhoea or pains, particularly in the head or stomach, Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to contact you to ask that you collect your child, or send an emergency contact (already known to the nursery) to collect on your behalf immediately.

Where children have been prescribed antibiotics, parents/guardians may be required to keep them at home for 48 hours before returning to Golden Owls Day Nursery. If a child is prescribed antibiotics for a contagious infection you are required to keep the child at home until the antibiotic course has finished.

All parents are required to inform the staff at Golden Owls Day Nursery if their child has been ill over the weekend or overnight before a session and if they have been given any medication for the illness. You must also inform us if your child has any notifiable  illness such as measles, chicken pox, slapped cheek, scarlet fever, hand, foot and mouth or head lice so all nursery parents can be informed.

Exclusions:

If your child has suffered from vomiting or diarrhoea we require that they be kept away from Golden Owls Day Nursery for at least 48 hours and until they have had a meal.

You may also be required to withdraw your child if we have reasonable cause to believe that the child is, or may be, suffering from any contagious disease. This is to ensure that the risk of spreading the disease to other children and staff is kept to a minimum. We exclude children who have communicable diseases for the recommended time required. Golden Owls Day Nursery holds a list of communicable diseases (as above) and the incubation periods/exclusion times and will advise parents accordingly. Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to send home an unwell child or to refuse a child if we feel that they are unwell. This includes children who may have had a temperature or have been unwell at home and have been given medicine to control this at home prior to attending Golden Owls Day Nursery.

Removal:

In extreme cases, and as a last resort, we may require you to permanently withdraw your child from Golden Owls Day Nursery on grounds of a child’s disruptive or inappropriate behaviour if it is in the best interests of your child and/or other children who attend the setting. We will consult with you before making such a decision.

Abuse to Staff:

Golden Owls Day Nursery will not tolerate any form of bullying, harassment, intimidation or violence towards any Golden Owls Day Nursery staff member. If a parent intimidates or acts in an aggressive way towards a staff member, they will be asked to leave the premises immediately. This may result in the loss of your child’s place at Golden Owls Day Nursery. More serious incidents will be reported to the police for further action.

Liability:

Golden Owls Day Nursery accepts no liability for any pecuniary or other loss suffered by you arising directly or indirectly as a result of Golden Owls Day Nursery being temporarily closed or the non-admittance of a child to Golden Owls Day Nursery for any reason.

Property, Clothing and Belongings:

Golden Owls Day Nursery cannot be held responsible for the loss or damage to children’s property unless damage is caused due to the negligence of our staff. Every reasonable effort will be made by the staff to ensure that children’s belongings are not lost or damaged. Parents should supply sufficient, practical clothing, labelled with your child’s full name, for your child’s daily needs. Please note that the nursery provides a range of activities some of which are messy. We do try to provide aprons to minimise mess to clothing but please bear this in mind when dressing your child for nursery.

Golden Owls Day Nursery Closure:

On occasion there may be circumstances beyond our control (for instance weather conditions, flooding, affected Utility supply, medical emergencies) that means the decision has to be taken to close Golden Owls Day Nursery. If Golden Owls Day Nursery is obliged on these occasions to pay the staff, then Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to charge for any session which your child would have attended if Golden Owls Day Nursery had not been closed due to circumstances beyond its control.

Disclosures:

Golden Owls Day Nursery needs to be informed about any medical and non-medical condition, health problem, allergy, dietary issues or suspected learning difficulty affecting your child. We also need to be informed of any family circumstances or court order that may affect your child whilst in our care. Please ensure that such information is disclosed to us as it arises. In addition, you are required to inform Golden Owls Day Nursery in writing of any changes to the information held by us (e.g. changes to emergency contacts, allergies, medical conditions) as appropriate. To support working in partnership with parents we will contact any other Provision/Professional who works with your child to gather and share assessments of your child’s development and learning.

Reporting neglect or abuse:

We have an obligation to report to the relevant authorities any suspicions we have that a child has suffered neglect or abuse, and we may do so without parent consent and/or informing the parent/carer.

Security:

Under no circumstances will a child be allowed to leave Golden Owls Day Nursery with anyone unknown to the staff, unless previously arranged by you. If you make prior arrangements by telephone, Golden Owls Day Nursery will require the contact details of the chosen person. A password will also be required.

School Admissions:

A place at Golden Owls Day Nursery has no influence on getting a school place for your child at Goldsworth Primary School. Applications for any school place will need to be made to the admissions department of your local authority.

The Agreement:

This document represents the understanding between Golden Owls Day Nursery and the Parent(s)/Guardian(s).

The signing of this Application Pack, and the date that written confirmation of your child’s place at Golden Owls Day Nursery is issued, gives rise to a legally binding contract on the above terms between yourselves and Golden Owls Day Nursery and constitutes commencement of the Agreement. Any breach of the Terms and Conditions will result, if necessary, in your child’s place being withdrawn and possible court action to recoup any money owed to Golden Owls Day Nursery.