Pevensey and Westham School will be opening a new nursery from September 2025. This is an exciting new venture for the school and we anticipate we will be open from 8th September 2025.
The Diocese and governors of the school have approved lowering the school age to 2 and there are no further permissions for us to seek. For 0–2-year-olds we require a separate Ofsted registration for the school. We can only apply for this registration 12 weeks before we are due to open, and this process can take up to 10 weeks. Therefore, these formal bookings for 0-2 year olds maybe delayed.
Little PAWS Nursery Ethos:
Our approach at Little PAWS Nursery will be characterised by a balanced blend of adult-led and child-led experiences, fundamentally guided by the principle that children learn best through play. Recognising that young learners thrive in an environment that encourages exploration and curiosity, our curriculum will be structured to fully embrace this ethos.
Staffing update:
Pevensey and Westham School have started our recruitment process for a nursery manager. https://pevenseyschool.org.uk/vacancies/ Once our nursery manager has been recruited we will assess demand and continue our recruitment process for other positions. We will introduce new staff to you as we recruit.
Provisional Nursery hours:
From September 2025 all eligible working parents will have access to 30 hours funding for children from 9 months up to school age:
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/free-childcare-how-we-tackling-the-cost-of-childcare/
We have worked with the local authority to develop our funding offer. Little PAWS Nursery will be open 48 weeks of the year. For children with 30 hours funding this will be stretched across the 48 weeks providing 24 funded hours per week. For children accessing 15 hours funding, sessions will be offered term time only.
Although we plan to open fully from 8th September 2025, we hope to be able offer some settling sessions for new starters during the week before. In relation to the 0-2s there may be a slightly later start date due to the Ofsted registration.
For the 2025/26 academic year, the four weeks we anticipate being closed will be October half term (27th to 31st October) and the school Christmas holiday (22nd December to 2nd January) along with a further week in the summer holiday. This gives us time to undertake any outstanding refurbishments.
Provisional available sessions:
The local authority have supported us in developing our core hours to best work alongside the timings of the main school day. This is to support parents with children at the school with pick up and drop off.
Morning Session: 08.30 – 11.30 (funded sessions)
Lunch session: 11.30 – 12.00 (includes hot lunch – paid session)
Afternoon Session: 12.00 – 15.00 (funded sessions)
Late Session: 15:00 – 18:00 (funded session)
Full Day Session: 08.00 – 18.00 (includes morning snack, hot lunch, afternoon snack and light tea)
There will also be limited availability for a 7.30am Early Bird drop off which would include breakfast.
Charges:
The Local Authority are awaiting new government guidance regarding the charges which will apply to all nurseries from September. As such, we are unable to share our session charges or additional charges at this time. We remain committed to be competitive with other local providers.
Building Developments
We are still awaiting the outcome of the school-based nursery DfE grant which we will find out about in ‘Early Spring’. The success of this bid will dictate how extensive the refurbishments to the Old School Building will be. We are however committed to undertaking key improvements before opening either way.
Booking and registration
Parents are unable to register funded hours with us for 2–4-year-olds until April 2025. For parents wishing to use funded hours for 0–2-year-olds, this will not be available until our Ofsted registration is complete, this could be as late as early September. For more information on funded hours and to claim your code please visit the Childcare Choices website: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/15-and-30-hours-childcare-support
In the meantime, you can register your place with us by completing our registration and bookings form. For our first cohort of children there will be no administration charge beyond a £60 deposit which will secure your place and be refunded when your child leaves the nursery (for funded only hours the holding deposit will be repaid within 6 weeks).
Booking and Registration Form: https://forms.office.com/e/r91bDCXnsg
Attendance at a school-based nursery does not guarantee a place in the school’s Reception year and parents would need to apply with the local authority in the usual way.
We may not yet be able to answer all of your questions but if you have something you would like to ask, please email the team at littlepaws@pevenseyschool.org.uk