Our Nursery
Our Lady of Lourdes Nursery is part of our main school and provides a secure and stimulating environment for all children to learn, play and flourish.
Above: Children exploring in our sandpit and willow dome, all part of our contained and safe outdoor area.
The children have supervised access to our extensive outside grassed and paved area where they love to explore their outside world and learn about their environment. It is carefully organised to enable children to develop and demonstrate characteristics of effective learning.
Practitioners support children in playing and exploring, active learning and developing creativity and critical thinking.
We value resources that promote possibility-thinking and offer limitless opportunities for play and learning. Children learn by leading their own, and by taking part in, play that is guided by adults. The child and adult engage in ‘sustained shared thinking’.
Children in our nursery have music sessions with our specialist teacher, as well as activity sessions with our PE specialists.
We gladly welcome children with special needs and government funding is available for children of 3 years and older and eligible 2 year olds.
Fees
| Our Fees are as follows: | Cost |
|---|---|
| Breakfast Club | £5 |
|
Preschool Session (am or pm) |
£16.50 |
| Lunch club | £4.00 |
| After school club | £10.00 |
PAYMENT
Details of payment required for unfunded sessions, lunch clubs and breakfast and after school clubs are available on School Money at the start of every half term.
We ask that you pay half-termly, our fees for each term can be made in two installments.
Late payment of instalments may result in your child losing their place at pre-school. All fees must be cleared by the end of every half term. Please read our payment policy.
Funding
2 year olds
Eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to claim 15 hours per week, for 38 weeks per year, from the term after their 2nd birthday (5 sessions). Eligible families must apply to Childcare Choices and be approved the term prior to claiming the funding (before your child turns 2) If you are eligible, please contact the office staff on office@ourladyoflourdes.southend.sch.uk. We must advise the council that we will be claiming 2-year-old funding BEFORE your child starts at pre-school. We will need a parent’s date of birth and their NI number.
3-4 year olds
All children are entitled to 15 hours universal funding (5 sessions) from the term AFTER their 3rd birthday. 30 hours childcare is available to eligible working families of 3 and 4 year olds in England. This is an additional 15 hours on top of the 15 hours available to all parents of three and four year olds.
If you think you are entitled to 30-hour funding, please go to Childcare Choices. You will find a link to the Government’s childcare calculator, information on how to claim it and the deadlines involved – for example, if you are claiming for the autumn term starting September 2025, you must apply before 31 August 2024. If you miss this deadline, you will not receive the universal 30-hour funding for that term. Lunch club sessions attended by your child will then be added to school money and invoiced to you payable in two instalments.
If eligible you will be given an 11 digit code, you will need to bring this code, your national insurance number and your child’s date of birth to the school office before a 30 hour space can be allocated as the school office must validate your code on the Early Years portal.
Every 3 months you will then need to reconfirm this code to ensure funding continues and ensure all information is up to date. HMRC will send reminders.
All parents/carers of children eligible for 30 hour funding are required to sign the parent/carer declaration form before the start of each term to confirm the number of funded hours they wish to access at our pre-school. You will also need to give the 11-digit code starting 500 and your NI number.
Additional information
Breakfast club, after school club and lunch club are not included in nursery universal funding and so additional charges are payable.
A funding form is required even if you do not claim additional funding - this allows us to claim your 15 hours universal funding - without this we may not be able to claim your funding and you may be liable for payment.
The declaration form is emailed to parents before the start of each term and is due back before the start of the new term.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has agreed that if a parent/carer decides to increase the number of hours their child is accessing after our headcount date (usually within the first 2 weeks of term), we can charge the parent/carer for these additional sessions. You will be able to claim for the increased hours, provided you meet all entitlement criteria, from the start of the next term.