13th February 2026
Dear parents and carers,
Firstly, thank you for continuing to choose St Paul’s for your child and investing in being part of our brilliant and loving nursery. I’m very proud of everything our children, families and team achieve every single day!
Next, we have some hopeful news for you — instead of increasing our Daycare fees, we have been able to reduce them!
We have been very aware that more recently, our fees have become increasingly uncompetitive, given that government funding has changed. As I have explained before, the funding does not cover hourly rates, but subsidises them.
The reason for our high costs is quite simply that as a maintained setting, we pay a higher salary than other providers to our staff — but significantly also pay a big pension contribution of 23% on top of this. Our apprentices and lower qualified staff members are also paid the LA Bristol Living Wage, which is much more than other nurseries pay their staff.
This is the context; however, we have spent 6 months working hard to consider how to reduce costs, and are happy to share that we have now got to a place where you will be paying 25% less for our core sessions! (please see new fees below).
We have done this through stripping right back, renegotiating contracts, subsidising through other income generation, and most significantly, shifting to a 1:5 ratio in our provision for 2s.
This latter decision has been a difficult choice, but we believe that because we now take more 30hr children in our 2-year-olds room — our early years educators have fewer key children across the week, so are still able to provide the high level of loving care and fantastic learning opportunities to their children. We also have regular additional adults in the room too, e.g. students, volunteers, SEND support staff, who add capacity.
St Paul’s will still remain an expensive option — but a less expensive one!
We also remain an exceptional nursery — with truly exceptional and highly skilled and qualified staff, some of whom are regarded as national leaders in Early Years.
We believe the experiences, breadth of opportunity, unique learning, and loving relationships we provide for our children are second to none — therefore we do provide value for money.
You will see from our fees that the 2 or 4 day option are the most affordable, this is due to the way we spread our free hours and ensure sustainability. You will also see that if you stick within the core hours of 8.00am and 4.00pm this is also the most affordable option.
In many ways we would recommend that the core hours are the most appropriate for our children — particularly in nursery school — where the children have to process so much over the day; working within much higher adult:child ratios, and experiencing a more rigorous daily routine and higher expectations for independence. The pressures are much more like a school day, and we can see some children just wanting ‘down time’ at home after such a busy time.
Family life is changing, with different working patterns, different financial pressures, sometimes increased isolation and the constant intrusion of social media. Parenting is increasingly tricky, with often contradictory advice on everything! We are also noticing differences in childhood, in children’s choices, behaviour, resilience and levels of tolerance.
Because of this we are constantly reflecting on the shape of our provision and offer for families.
We will soon be sending out a survey asking some questions about your early education and day care requirements, and also about any family support or opportunities to connect that you might like. Please can I urge you all to complete this to help inform the continued development and improvement of our nursery offer — it has to be the right shape for this diverse and unique community.
Thank you again for choosing St Paul’s and for being part of our dynamic and inclusive learning community. It’s so lovely to be able to write to you with GOOD NEWS at last!
We still have some places for September, so please do recommend us to family and friends.
Kind regards,
Lucy Driver
Executive Head
New Fees from 1st April 2026
Baby Room
| Sessions | Non-funded hours (2:30–4:00pm) @ £18.70/hr + £3 meal | St Paul’s Enrichment Charge @ £3.35 per funded hour | Full day charge for 3rd or 5th day (no funded hours) | Cost per week (with WPE) | Cost per week (Tax-Free Childcare & WPE) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Days (15 hrs) | £62.10 | £40.20 | — | £102.30 | £81.84 |
| 3 Days (22.5 hrs) | £62.10 | £40.20 | £143.25 | £245.55 | £196.44 |
| 4 Days (30 hrs) | £124.20 | £80.40 | — | £204.60 | £163.68 |
| 5 Days (37.5 hrs) | £124.20 | £80.40 | £143.25 | £347.85 | £278.28 |
2–3s Room
| Sessions | Non-funded hours (2:30–4:00pm) @ £14/hr + £3 meal | St Paul’s Enrichment Charge @ £2.50 per funded hour | Full day charge for 3rd or 5th day (no funded hours) | Cost per week (with WPE) | Cost per week (Tax-Free Childcare & WPE) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Days (15 hrs) | £48.00 | £30.00 | — | £78.00 | £62.40 |
| 3 Days (22.5 hrs) | £48.00 | £30.00 | £108.00 | £186.00 | £148.80 |
| 4 Days (30 hrs) | £96.00 | £60.00 | — | £156.00 | £124.80 |
| 5 Days (37.5 hrs) | £96.00 | £60.00 | £108.00 | £264.00 | £211.20 |
Wraparound sessions in nursery school will increase to £12 per hour from 1st April 2026.
