Cygnets Nursery Class
We are delighted to welcome our first cohort of children and their families into our new nursery provision. We are a teacher led nursery class, opened in September 2023 and are looking forward to moving into our own purpose designed building soon. We take children after their third birthday until they start in Reception. We are offering 15 hour and 30 hour places and are open 38 weeks of the year.
Children can attend either:
- 30 hours a week – 5 full days - 8:45- 3:15 (including half an hour at lunch time)
- 15 hours a week - 5 mornings - 8:45- 11:45
- 15 hours a week - 5 afternoons - 12:15- 3:15
If your child is or will be 3 years old in the next academic year and you would like to apply for a place, please complete the Nursery Place Enquiry form below and return it to the school office:admin@wistaston.cheshire.sch.uk. We will then send out a registration pack and confirm your child's place as soon as possible.
Please explore the tabs below to find our more about how our nursery operates. The Parent's Guide is a great place to start as it contains all the important information and hopefully answers lots of the questions you may have.
What do we need to bring
Please provide the following :
- waterbottle filled with fresh water everyday
- coat/raincoat (puddlesuit is fine too)
- welly boots (they can stay in school)
- two sets of spare clothes (t-shirt, jumper/cardigan,trousers/leggings, socks/tights, pants)
- warm hat, scarf for winter
- sun hat, sun screen for summer
Information About Funding
All children are eligible to receive 15 hours of free early education entitlement (FEEE) starting from the term after they are 3 years old. This funding is provided by the local authority and comes straight to school. We will need parents to complete a FEEE form before their child starts in order for for us to access their funding.
Some families are entitled to receive 30 hours of funding each week, rather than 15. To check your eligibility please see:
Apply for 30 hours free childcare - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
If you wish for your child to start immediately after their third birthday, weekly fees will apply until their funding starts the following term. Similarly, if you wish for your child to attend for 30 hours, but they are only eligible for 15 hours, weekly fees will apply.
If your child attends for 5 full days, the 30 hours FEEE funding covers their learning time, but doesn't cover the half an hour supervised lunch session, so we need to make a small charge for this time. We charge £2 per day.
Parents can, if needed, access our Swan Stars before and after school club to provide wrap around care. For more information about Swan Stars, please see their webpage:
https://www.wcla.co.uk/461/swan-stars-before-and-after-school-club
Below shows the fees we charge for before and after school club, lunchtime and any unfunded hours.
| Session | Cost |
| Before School | £5.15 |
| Morning/Afternoon Session | £15.50 |
| Lunch Time Supervision | pound;2.00 |
| After School Club | £10.25 |
| Full Unfunded Day 8:45- 3:15 | £33.00 |
| Full Unfunded Day 7:15 - 6:00 | £48.40 |
Admissions into Nursery
Our nursery class welcomes all children once they have turned 3 until they start in Reception. We have places for 26 children to attend at any one time.
Attendance at our Nursery class does not automatically mean that children will be awarded a place in our Reception class. School admissions are decided and administered by Cheshire East Council and parents still need to apply for a school place for their child at: https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/schools/admissions/start-school-september.aspx
Parents are welcome to make enquiries and register their interest for a place in the nursery class whenever they wish, and places will be confirmed the term before the children are due to start. Although we do our very best to provide places for all children, early expressions of interest do not necessarily guarantee a place.
If there is a situation where the demand for places is greater than the number of places available the following criteria will be used to decide to whom the places are offered:
- A child who has been offered a place in our Reception class for the following September by the local authority. This criterion will only be used from April onwards when school places are confirmed and is so that children can start to make friends and settle at Church Lane.
- Siblings - pupils with brothers or sisters, step-brothers or step-sisters, foster brother or sisters, half-brother or half-sisters, adopted brothers or adopted sisters living together as part of one household, already attending Church Lane and who are expected to continue at the school at the time of admission.
- Children of staff at the Church Lane - Priority will be given to children of full-time members of staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years (at the time of application) and for new staff recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
- Pupils living nearest to the school – measured using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) which measures straight line distances in miles from the address point of the place of residence to the address point of the academy.