The nursery closes between Christmas and New Year and all English Bank Holidays. All bank holidays are non-refundable.

Your child is entitled to funded hours from the start of the school term after their 3rd birthday. Tiny Tots provides two funding offers. The first is Universal (available to all) and comprises 15 hours free child care during term-time, 38 weeks of the year, which can be accessed completely free during Tiny Tots sessions.  The second funding offer is available to eligible families and extends the 15 universal hours up to 30. For both types of funding the nursery is required to complete a number of forms for the Local Education Authority which parents must sign each term. The Nursery Manager will identify all eligible children on our register and will contact you to fill in the necessary forms before submitting them on your behalf. The funding will be automatically deducted from the fees and will appear on the invoice as funded hours. There is a separate handout available which explains both types of funding that we offer in more detail and how to check your eligibility.

Your child's 'key person' is responsible for observing your child during their play and to devise activities that will assist their development and learning. Sometimes this will include group activities where children showing similar interests and skills can participate in an activity together. They will also have an opportunity to listen to stories, do shows and share and sing songs in groups. These group activities may occur both indoors and outdoors.

Tiny Tots operates under strict policies and procedures which all staff are trained on and must follow. Copies are available to view at nursery for all attending families.

Sometimes children may go on walks to the local park, library for story time or around the local area. These trips will help extend children's learning. You will be asked to give permission for your child to attend when you register.

You can talk to any of our staff at the nursery on 01285 885570 or e-mail tinytots@rugratsandhalfpints.com and we will be delighted to help. 

At the end of the day, your child's key person will feed back information about your child's day. For the babies and younger children, this will include information about their sleep times, mealtimes and nappy changes. The key person will also feedback information about activities and experiences that your child has been involved with over the day. If the key person is not there, the ‘buddy’ key person or another nominated staff member will be available to share that information with you.

Our fees are reviewed annually in May through a structured process to look at the costs of operating the nursery. If we feel that the operating costs have risen we will then increase the fees. You will receive notice in June of any increase, with the first month of the increase being September.

We design a wide variety of experiences and activities for the children that encourage them to make decisions and become independent learners. When they arrive they will be asked to self-register – looking for their name card and placing it on the ‘who’s here today’ board. They will learn about the letters of the alphabets, how to write their name, counting numbers from 1-20 and beyond, the days of the week, the weather and key events in the calendar. Mark making is key and is encouraged through the use of pencils, crayons, paints, in the sand tray and on the chalkboards. They will learn about mathematical concepts such as big and small, full and empty, big, bigger and biggest, as well as shapes, colours, animals and opposites. They will have the opportunity to use a variety of resources for exploration including sand, water, construction materials, paint, glue, chalks, scissors, measuring jugs and magnifying glasses, as well as being able to make believe in the role play area. More or less everything we do can be taken outside, and children will have regular dance sessions and physical activities outdoors. Our interactive whiteboard will be used to teach the children all sorts of concepts interactively through fun games and characters. There is also a reading corner where the children can help themselves to books, a large chalk board on the wall for practising writing and group sessions held on the big rug; listening and telling stories, identifying words and signs and regular show and share sessions. Through our monthly topics they will learn about themselves, the world around them, the seasons and other topics designed to engage them. Craft and creative activities are then linked to the current topic and the children’s work will be displayed on the walls and from the ceilings, giving them a sense of achievement and pride. The children also cook, do yoga, participate in rugby tots or Monkey Music sessions with an external company that comes in, learn about planting and growing vegetables and participate in food tasting and dressing up. We encourage independent play, listening and concentrating, making friends, sharing and socialising. Our "school week" sessions can have varying numbers of participants and focus on key skills: Greeting Others Taking Turns – listening and talking Taking Turns at Play Sharing Asking for Help Identifying Feelings Empathy Overcoming Fear and Anxiety Managing Frustration Calming Down Speaking up Overarching everything, your child’s key person is there to identify their learning and development needs and to plan activities and experiences that will assist them starting school.

When you complete the All About Me, we ask you to tell us if your child has any allergies. We have a specific operating policy for dealing with allergic reactions which we follow once you have made us aware of the allergy. It includes: Assessing children’s needs prior to commencement of attendance: Discuss with parents of the relevant child what signs and symptoms to look out for. Obtain written permission to administer medication. Request parents to enter details into medication log. Ensure that parents provide an adequate, in-date supply of the required medication. This must be kept at the setting all the time that the child is present and all staff must know where to find it. All staff will be made aware of your child’s allergy. Details of the allergy will be detailed on the allergy chart in the kitchen so that all food prepared for your child avoids the allergens identified. Every staff member must read and re-sign this chart every two months or whenever it is updated. Arrange additional training for staff, if required. If your child has a severe allergy and requires an Autoinjector, we have staff onsite who are trained to administer this. Please ask to see a copy of our policy on this subject.

Tax Free Childcare is a way of claiming a top-up benefit from the government for childcare costs. The HMRC website describes this benefit as follows: ​ Parents will be able to open a new childcare account. For every £8 a parent pays into their childcare account, the government will pay in an extra £2. Parents can get up to £2000 government support per child per year towards their childcare costs. They can then use this money to pay their childcare provider. The government has started inviting parents to apply for Tax-Free Childcare beginning with parents of the youngest children first. Check whether Tax-Free Childcare is the best offer for you using the childcare calculator. Parents will only be able to pay their childcare provider from their childcare account if their childcare provider is signed up to Tax-Free Childcare. While parents cannot make payments using both Tax-Free Childcare and childcare vouchers, childcare providers who are signed up to Tax-Free Childcare can receive payments from both schemes.

There are a range of ways you can make savings on your childcare costs. The three main ways are: Salary Sacrifice and pay with voucher payments Tax-free childcare Government Funding – 15 or 30 hours free childcare

We accept vouchers from the following companies: ​ Accor Services  Edenred Care-4  Sodexho PASS Mid-Counties Cooperative Allsave Faircare Childcare Plus Computershare Kids Unlimited Kiddivouchers

If your employer operates a childcare voucher scheme, you can save National Insurance and Income Tax. By registering for your employer's scheme, up to £55 a week can be deducted from your salary and used to provide childcare vouchers for the same amount. This amount, which is deducted from your gross salary, is then exempt from National Insurance and Income Tax.

Tiny Tots offers both the Universal 15 hours funding for all children from the term after their third birthday, and the Extended funding, which was introduced in August 2017 and offers a further 15 hours for eligible families. Access to the Extended funding has certain conditions. The term before your child turns three, we will provide a full handout which explains how both types of funding work and how to access them.

If your employer uses a different provider, our nursery manager will liaise with you to make the necessary arrangements. If you receive paper vouchers, they can be handed in at the nursery to be redeemed each month against your fees, or you can redeem the voucher yourself. Alternatively, many providers now offer an automatic redemption process. Once you have made this arrangement, the redemption takes place at the same time each month, without any further action needed on your part. If you pay the balance of your fees by direct debit, once we know that you are redeeming childcare vouchers automatically, we will only ever take your invoice total less your monthly voucher payment. If you have more than one child at the nursery, you can choose whether the voucher payment is split between your accounts or redeemed against just one account.

Tiny Tots is open all year round, 51 weeks a year from 8am – 6pm. We close between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. We do offer a limited number of term-time only spaces which need to be requested on registration.

Your child:  is under 12, or 17 if they're registered as having a disability usually lives with you You (and your partner, if you have one): are 16 or over live or work in the UK are employed or self-employed are over 21 and earn on average at least £120 a week, unless in your first year of self-employment. Different rates apply if you're under 21 or an apprentice. earn less than £100,000 a year each don't get other support with your childcare, including from a childcare voucher or salary sacrifice scheme You may also be eligible if you have a partner and one of you gets any of the following benefits:  Carers Allowance Employment and Support Allowance Incapacity Benefit Severe Disablement Benefit You can read more here: https://childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/par/app/eligibility