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 their 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.

Registration Fee:

Once you have decided to apply for your child to attend Golden Owls Day Nursery, you will be required to complete and sign this Application Pack. Applications must be accompanied by a non-refundable £75 registration fee payable by bank transfer. Paying the registration fee does not automatically guarantee a place for your child.

Please note that if you are only applying for a FEET funded place, the £75 registration fee/deposit is not required unless you taking additional fee paying sessions.

In the event that a nursery place is not immediately available, then your child’s name will be placed on the waiting list.

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 Manager in writing and you will be advised as to the availability for your child. We reserve the right to charge a £5.00 administration fee for changes to sessions.

 

Opening Hours:

Golden Owls Day Nursery provides Full Day Care, 50 weeks of the year. Our opening hours are as follows:

Morning sessions run Monday to Friday: 7.30am to 1.00pm.

Afternoon sessions run Monday to Friday: 1.00pm to 6.30pm.

Full day sessions run from 7:30am to 6:30pm

Golden Owls Day Nursery will close for Bank Holidays and for 2 holiday weeks; usually over the Christmas period and at the end of August. Please see our website for actual dates.

Please note that we do not offer shorter sessions or term time only places.

Deposit:

We require a deposit of £50 for five or less sessions per week and £100 for six or more sessions a week to guarantee a place for your child. The deposit required will be displayed on your confirmation letter and payment is due within 14 days of the confirmation being sent. Your deposit will either be taken off your final invoice or returned in full when your child leaves us on their leaving date. If your child leaves any earlier than your planned leaving date (without the required 8 weeks’ notice) or you do not take up your confirmed place at Golden Owls Day Nursery, your deposit will not be returned.

Leaving date:

We assume that all children will leave Golden Owls Day Nursery on the 31^st August in the year which they start school from September. Please note that fees will be calculated using this date as a basis for invoicing purposes. 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. Information on our current fees and planned fee increases are available on our website and are displayed in the nursery. Please note fees are reviewed annually, usually in September and are subject to change.  We will provide written notice of at least one month if fees have to be increased.

We offer a 10% discount on fees for siblings who attend Golden Owls Day Nursery.

Fees for sessions are due monthly in advance. Fees will be invoiced at the beginning of every month and payment should be made immediately and at least within 7 days of receipt of invoice. Fees can be paid via bank transfer or childcare vouchers.  Fees are calculated calendar monthly. 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.

Fees may be recalculated to take into account that more funded hours may have been delivered than the stretched termly hours claimed, These additional hours will be charged at our standard rate.

Late Payment of Fees

Each months invoice has a specific date when payment is due. 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 collection or added to your invoice.

Local Authority Funding:

Golden Owls Day Nursery is approved to accept government funded early education for children aged three and four years old. This funding entitles a child to have up to 15 hours of funded early education provision a week, for 38 weeks a year during term time or 11 hours of funded early years provision a week, for 50 weeks of the year.  We only offer stretched funding with each child claiming a maximum of 3 hours FEE per 5.5 hour session, a total of 11 funded hours a week, over 50 weeks of the year. The total amount of hours able to be claimed per child is 570 hours over the academic year. Please check Surrey County Council 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 an FEE Registration 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 FEE Declaration Form at the beginning of every funded period, stating the exact number of hours your child will be attending. For more information on dates and funding please see Surrey County Council’s web page at http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/family-information-service/choosing-childcare-for-children-and-young-people/paying-for-childcare/free-early-education-for-3-and-4-year-olds

We offer a limited amount of FEET funded places (15 hours per week ‘Free Early Years Education for Two Year Olds’) for children aged 2 and over. Total amount of hours per child able to be claimed is 570 hours over the academic year. As we are open for 50 weeks a year and expect all children to attend throughout the year, we offer 11 hours per week funding stretched across the entire year. We offer two sessions each week free of charge to be agreed with the nursery, but any additional sessions and/or charges including late collection fees still apply.  This agreement continues when the child turns 3 years old.  Please note that if you are only applying for a FEET funded place, the £75 registration fee/deposit is not required unless you pay for additional sessions. 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 parental contract has been signed agreeing to take funded early education, Golden Owls Day Nursery will get secure funding for a funded period, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Once you have signed a declaration of attendance, you will not be able to transfer any funded early education to another provider during the same funded period. Please check with us first if you wish to claim at another provider as well as Golden Owls Day Nursery. 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. For example at Golden Owls we only offer stretched funding so you may not be able to claim term time funding at another setting.

Funded Early Education — Extended Hours/Working Parent entitlement

Some 3 and 4 year old children may be entitled to extended Funded Early Education hours.

Some 2 year old children may also be entitled to 15 funded 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 an additional 15 hours of funded early education, which they can take in a variety of ways. The government has set up a process for parents to check their eligibility through an online process. 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 15 hours of childcare. Parents will have do this every three months to show they are still eligible.

At Golden Owls Day Nursery we only offer the extended 15 hours as a maximum of 11 extended hours each week (for 50 weeks) with a maximum of 3 hours claimed per session (Morning 7:30am-1pm or Afternoon 1pm-6:30pm which can be combined for a full day). Total claim 22 hours per week stretched over 50 weeks. If you are eligible for the extended 11 hours you will need to apply via https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ and obtain an eligibility code before we can claim your extended hours. You will need to re-check your eligibility every 3 months. We reserve the right to limit the number of places and agree which sessions throughout the week are claimed as extended funded early education If you lose your eligibility for extended hours Golden Owls Day Nursery reserves the right to remove these sessions or offer the choice to pay full fees for these sessions. Parents will be liable for any fees due to becoming ineligible for any extended hours as set out in the grace periods in the Local Authority guidance.

Please note that 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 (or grant claimed by us), until that date, whether your child attends Golden Owls Day Nursery or not.

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 (or grant claimed by us), until that date, whether your child attends Golden Owls Day Nursery or not. Fees may be recalculated to take into account that previous fees have been calculated on an annual basis . You may have an additional amount to pay when actual calendar month fees are calculated on termination or session changes. If your child leaves any earlier than your planned leaving date (without the required 8 weeks’ notice) or you do not take up your confirmed place at Golden Owls Day Nursery, your deposit will not be returned.

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 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 you 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 un-well 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.