Dear Parents and Carers,
It’s so lovely to see some of you slowly being invited on site to see, hear, experience and sense our nursery provision. Thank you for your positive feedback about this.
It’s also really exciting to be restarting our showarounds. Jet and I spent Saturday at nursery welcoming families through the door to have a look at our provision, I was delighted to actually meet parents again – reminds me of what I love about the job.
As we now head into summer we are hoping for sunshine, lessening of restrictions and a year ahead without so many interruptions!
We are still feeling the effects of Covid here, with staff having to isolate whilst waiting for results for themselves or in their family. The majority of staff are now vaccinated and we would urge all our families to be vaccinated please – to help keep the whole community safe and well.
We are really desperate for a bit of stability!
Sustainability
As you know the sustainability of our provision has been an issue for years now, as the Nursery School has seen year on year cuts to funding, and the national funding for 2 year old places doesn’t cover costs.
We are still lobbying the government for funding commitments, and hanging on in there by budgeting and generating income which balance our books.
With this in mind, I write to inform you that one of our sustainability strategies is to review our charges on an annual basis against increased costs. Having completed this exercise we will now be increasing our hourly rates.
From 1st September 2021 our new hourly fee will be:
- Baby Room: £8.50
- 2-3s Room: £7.75
- Nursery School Wraparound: £7.25
I think most parents have been anticipating this, and our new parents have been informed of changes in fees, despite this I really want to apologise for this increase.
It is really not what anyone needs or can afford, particularly during this ‘covid recovery’ period, in which I suspect we have all been affected one way or another.
I believe that if there was ever a time that the government should be stepping up and investing in high quality early education and childcare its NOW. The early years should be well subsided for all families, particularly the most disadvantaged.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support
Kind Regards,
Lucy Driver
Headteacher/National Leader of Education
