General Information
Please use these links for further information:
About Us
Set up in 1997, St Mary’s Pre-school is a registered charity constituted with a Management Committee. We are registered to take up to twenty four children per session. We are members of the Pre-School Learning Alliance and are regularly inspected by Ofsted. We were graded ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in October 2014.
Opening Hours
We are open Monday-Friday during school term times. We offer the following sessions:
- Lunch Club for Nursery children from 11.45 am – 12.30 pm.
- Lunch Club for Pre-school children: 12.00 pm – 12.30 pm.
- Afternoon Pre-School session: 12.30 pm – 3.30 pm.
Subject to availability children can attend between one and five sessions each week. Any changes to your booking or sessions must be notified a full half term in advance.
Age Range
St Mary’s Pre-school is open to children aged from two years six months to five years old. Children may start any time after they turn two and a half and stay until the time they leave to join a full time school Reception class. We are delighted to accept children who have not secured a Nursery place in a school and always ensure that our curriculum and planning is suitably adapted to meet their learning and development needs.
Term Dates
Autumn Term 2018
- School Inset Day – Monday 3 September 2018
- Children start back – Tuesday 4 September 2018
- School Inset Day – Friday 26 October 2018
- Half Term – Monday 29 October to Friday 2 November 2018
- Occasional Day – Friday 30 November 2018
- End of term – Friday 21 December 2018 @ 1.30pm
Spring Term 2019
- School Inset Day – Monday 7 January 2019
- Children start back – Tuesday 8 January 2019
- Half Term – Monday 18 to Friday 22 February 2019
- End of term – Friday 5 April 2019 @ 1.30pm
Summer Term 2019
- Bank Holiday – Monday 22 April 2019
- School Inset Day – Tuesday 23 April 2019
- Children start back – Wednesday 24 April 2019
- Bank holiday – Monday 6 May 2019
- Half Term – Monday 27 May to Friday 31 May 2019
- End of term – Tuesday 23 July 2019 @ 1.30pm
Lunch Club
In addition to our afternoon pre-school sessions, we also offer a Lunch Club for children attending St Mary’s Nursery in the mornings. Children bring a packed lunch to eat and then can choose to leave at 12.30 pm or stay on for the afternoon session until 3.30 pm. Once settled at Pre-school, we also offer a shorter Lunch Club for children attending our afternoon session. Children bring a packed lunch to eat at 12.00 pm and then stay on for the afternoon session.
Fees and Funding
Our fees for 2018/19 are as follows:
- Lunch Club for Nursery children – £4.00 per session.
- Lunch Club for Pre-school children – £4.00 per session.
- Afternoon Pre-School session – £16.00 per session.
- Healthy Snack – 30p per afternoon session.
In addition, we ask for a non-refundable registration fee of £25.00 when you submit your application form.
We are registered with Hertfordshire County Council and can offer 15 hour funded places for eligible 2 year olds. We also offer 15 hour funded places for all 3-4 year olds. This funding is normally available from the term after a child turns 3 years old.
From September 2017, we also offer the new Government 30 hour funding for eligible working families of 3-4 year olds in conjunction with St Mary’s C of E Primary School. Children of eligible families attending St Mary’s School Nursery will be able to use the funding to attend up to 5 Pre-school sessions as well, subject to place availability.
Further details on eligibility for the new funding can be found on the following link.
https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
Registering Your Child
If you would like to apply for a Pre-school place, please contact us to request an application pack or download the application and registration forms using the links below. Early registration is strongly recommended.
Getting Involved
We do not operate a help rota system as we realise it is sometimes difficult for parents to change their regular commitments. Instead we offer an open invitation to all of our families at Pre-school and actively welcome any family member who would like to volunteer. Any contributions that parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles or carers make to the Pre-school are highly valued and we are always delighted when someone gives an afternoon of their time to spend time with the children.
Fundraising
We rely on the generous support of our parents and management committee to raise funds for the Pre-school. Recent fundraising activities include:
- Sponsored events
- Raffles
- Tesco and Sainsbury’s voucher schemes.
- Stalls at St Mary’s School Christmas and Summer Fayres.
- Kidzone summer voucher scheme
- Sale of name labels for which the Pre-School receives a commission.
- Sale of Christmas cards for which the Pre-school receives a commission.
We are always looking for new and inventive ways to raise money and welcome any suggestions or offers of support.
St Mary’s C of E (VA) Primary School
Although closely affiliated with St Mary’s C of E (VA) Primary School, the Pre-school functions as a completely separate organisation. Please note that children attending the Pre-school are not in any way guaranteed a place at St Mary’s Nursery, which is part of St Mary’s C of E (VA) Primary School and has its own admissions procedures. For further information on the Nursery and School, click on the link below: http://www.stmarys916.herts.sch.uk/