Nursery Admissions

For Nursery admissions from September 2018, all places are allocated by Berkswich CE Primary School in accordance with the school’s policy. Applications for our Nursery are processed by the Governing Board of Berkswich CE Primary School.

Our Nursery admissions process for places in September 2024 opens on Monday 8th January 2024 and closes on Monday 5th April 2024. Parents will be notified of offered places by Friday 12th April 2024. Applications at other times are welcomed and will be considered if places are available. January 2025 places will not be offered until September after the Autumn term 2024 places have been taken.

There are twenty-one morning places and twenty-one afternoon places, although the same child may use both a morning and an afternoon place each day. Wrap-around care before and after school, and a lunch-time club is available to extend the Nursery provision further. 

Use of Provision Hours

At Berkswich, we have carefully considered the way in which the funding can impact each child’s care and learning within Nursery. With this as our priority, all children attending our full-time teacher-led Nursery need to take up all morning places - 8:45am - 11:45am (three hours of provision a day) for five mornings or 12:20 – 3:20pm (three hours of provision a day) for five afternoons. This will ensure continuity with a high level of uninterrupted provision. Parents may request additional sessions and wrap-around care and it may be possible to increase hours each term if sessions are available. All increased in hours, beyond those set before the place is accepted, must be agreed prior to any changes in provision to ensure that staffing levels are correct. 
All children need to access full sessions; this is due to the location of Nursery within school and the staffing levels required to hand children over at different times within sessions.  
Where more additional hours are requested than available, school will follow the admission criteria to select children for these places. We will always endeavour to accommodate requests for increased provision as we understand that needs may change over time. 

Oversubscription Criteria  

If the total number of applications for admission to the Nursery setting exceeds the number of available places, then there is a determined order for the remaining places.

 
1) Relevant Children in Care, including those previously determined as Looked After Children (that is, children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order). 

2) Children wishing to take up five mornings and/or afternoon places each day of the school week will take priority, in order to increase continuity of learning and continue to secure current staffing. 

3) Children whose parent is a member of the teaching staff. 

4) Children who have an elder brother or sister in attendance at the school and who will still be attending the school at the time of the proposed admission date (for admission purposes, a brother or sister is a child who lives at the main address provided and either: have one or both birth parents in common; are related by a parent’s marriage; are adopted or fostered by a common parent or are unrelated children who live at the main address, whose parents live as partners).  

5) Children living within the defined catchment area of the school.  

6) Children with a September 2020 start date, rather than a Spring or Summer 2021 start.  

7) Children whose parents can evidence a link with a local church and the personal importance of attending a Church of England setting.  

8) Other children will be arranged in order of priority, according to how near their home addresses are to the school determined by Google Walking Route Map. 

Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category, then we will allocate the available places in accordance with the next criteria. If, for instance, all of the catchment area cannot be accommodated, children who would start in September 2020 would be admitted next.  
If a child has been admitted the term after they are three in the Spring or Summer Term, meaning that they will still be of Nursery age in the Autumn Term of the subsequent academic year, then they will automatically be offered a place for the following academic year (e.g. in September 2021), providing that a minimum of five morning and/or afternoon places are required). This place must be accepted by the deadline stated in the offer letter. If 
the place is not required for the following September, then we respectfully ask that parents let us know as soon as possible. 

How to apply  

Please download an application form from our school website (Key Information/Admissions tab) or collect one from our school office. Completed application forms should be emailed to office@berkswich.staffs.sch.uk, or hand-delivered or posted to: 
Berkswich CE Primary School

Cedar Way

Walton-on-the-Hill

Stafford

Staffordshire

ST17 0LU    

(01785) 337360 

Parents will receive an email in reply to acknowledge receipt of an emailed application. If you have not received confirmation, it is vital that school is contacted. There are occasions when contact details are incomplete and school has been unable to contact parents.  
 

Children Starting ‘Early’ After Their Third Birthday 

There many children who have longer than one year in Nursery. The Nursery Teacher will invite the child and parents to spend a little time in school to discuss the child’s needs within the setting. Where a child is deemed ready for a transition into Nursery and is toilet trained, a place will be offered if there is one (see admission criteria and waiting lists in the case of over-subscription). Parents whose children are not deemed by staff to be ready, may re-apply for a place in each successive term.  
Nursery provision is available as soon as your child is three years of age, but funding would not be available until the first term after their third birthday. If a child has turned three and is deemed by school to be ready for Nursery, then parents may choose to fully fund an available place.  
Additionally, once parents receive 15/30 hours funding, they may extend the provision beyond these funded hours by paying for further time in the Nursery. The chart below should be referred to if a fifteen hour funded place is required. Please refer to the Welcome to the Nursery Booklet for further information and links about how to apply for the additional hours of funding (‘30 hours’).  
 

If you child turns 3 between 1st January – 31st March: 
funded places can start in the Summer Term (after the Easter Break in April) 
If you child turns 3 between 1st April – 31st August:
funded places can start in the Autumn Term (after the Summer break in September) 
If you child turns 3 between 1st September – 31st December:
funded places can start in the Spring Term (after the Christmas break in January)