Frequently asked questions

Fees cover everything with the exception of snacks and meals; nappies and wipes; and certain offsite visits – we publish these at the beginning of the year so families can plan.

Yes. We charge £2.55 for lunch and snacks each 9am -3pm day (or just 40p for snacks if you bring a packed lunch). For an 8am – 5pm day we charge £3.80 for lunch, tea and snacks, including breakfast (or just 60p for snacks if you bring a packed lunch). We do this to try and keep fees as low as possible. If you have any trouble paying these, please come and speak to the office staff.

You must buy childcare by the session. Our sessions are:

• Morning (9am – 12pm)
• Afternoon (12pm – 3pm)
• Wraparound (8am – 9am) and (3pm – 5pm)

You will be invoiced monthly, in advance. When payments have not been made, the nursery reserves the right to remove any fee-incurring sessions or lunches from future bookings until the debt is cleared.

No, we don’t require a registration fee or deposit. We also don’t charge for showarounds, home visits or to go on the waiting list.

Yes, if you take a holiday during your booked sessions, you will be charged, as the place will still be held for you. You will not be charged when the nursery is closed.

The cost of childcare in the UK is amongst the highest in the world. At Ark Start, we believe that everyone should have access to high quality, flexible and affordable childcare regardless of their background and for that reason:

• Ensure that every family can access their government funded entitlements for free
• Charge private hours out at cost meaning we do not cross subsidise or make money from our private fees
• We make sure all additional charges are transparent (such as lunch) and that you can bring a packed lunch if you prefer.

You can find out more about fees for your chosen Ark Start nursery.

As a non-profit, we keep our fees as low as possible to help more families access high-quality childcare. Check fees on your chosen nursery page.

Many families are eligible for 30 hours of free childcare per week. At Ark Start, these funded hours can be used term time only or stretched all year round, without the need to pay for additional sessions. Check your eligibility for government funding or speak to our nursery team to understand your entitlements.

The government offer support for childcare costs. You can check your entitlements here. Alternatively, you can speak to our nursery team who will help you understand your entitlements. You may also be entitled to tax free childcare, find out more here.

3-year-olds will be able to start a funded nursery place in the September, January or April following their third birthday. Their birthday must be before 31st March for funding from Summer Term (April), 31st August for Autumn Term (September) & 31st December for Spring Term (January). 

Absolutely. If you are entitled to government funding, you can access your funded hours term-time only  (38 weeks of the year) or ‘stretched’ all-year-round (48 weeks of the year) without any requirement to pay for additional sessions.

Term Time Only – 5 sessions / week. 

In general, the following options are available:

School day

Morning and afternoon sessions Monday and Tuesday and morning session on Wednesday

Or afternoon session on Wednesday and morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday and Friday

Full days

Morning, afternoon and wrap around session one day a week with a morning and afternoon session on the other day.

All Year Round – 4 sessions / week

School day

9am – 3pm Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday 

Term Time Only – 10 sessions / week. 

In general, the following options are available:

School day

Morning and afternoon sessions Monday to Friday

Full days

Morning, afternoon and wrap around sessions two days a week

Morning and afternoon sessions two days a week

All Year Round – 8 sessions / week

Morning and afternoon sessions four days a week 

Morning, afternoon and wrap around sessions two days a week and one morning and afternoon session one day a week

No. The booking patterns we offer mean that you can use your funded hours without buying additional sessions. The minimum number of hours you need to book, if you choose an all year round booking, is 12 hours (or 4 sessions) over two school days 9am – 3pm on a Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday.

No. If you want all year round childcare, we ‘stretch’ your funding. This is another way of saying, we spread your funded hours over 48 weeks. The total amount of funding you are entitled to (570 hours) is exactly the same.

No, while fees are charged per 3 hours, a morning session is only available if your child attends a ‘beginning of the week’ booking pattern, which is a school day 9am – 3pm on a Monday and Tuesday and a morning session 9am – 12pm on a Wednesday.

Yes. You first need to apply for tax-free childcare here. You can speak to our admissions team for more information.

There is some financial help available for families with children at nursery. You can find out more here.

In order to register your child, please submit an enquiry form for your chosen location on our website. We’ll then invite you to come and visit the nursery.

Of course! We understand that choosing a nursery is a big decision and welcome other family members or friends.

Choosing the right nursery for your child can be difficult. At Ark Start we try and make this process as easy as possible – once you have registered for the nursery, you can come and visit and meet the team. At that visit, you can ask any questions or share any worries.

We believe that the right nursery for your child is:

• Somewhere you and they feel happy and secure
• A place where staff are caring and kind
• A place where children can learn and grow

Our nurseries serve a range of ages from as young as 9 months to the day children start school (the legal requirement is to start school the term after a child turns 5).

Places must be booked as sessions (each session is 3-hours and we run 3 sessions per day) with a minimum of 4 sessions per week. We are not able to offer bookings for individual hours.

At Ark Start, you can choose between a Core Day (9am to 3pm), a School Day (8.15am to 3.45pm) or a Full Day (8am to 5pm), which includes wraparound care from 8am to 9am and 3pm to 5pm to extend your child’s day.

Parents are required to give one month’s notice if they wish to change their booking pattern. This notice needs to be given in writing, the nursery staff cannot agree to booking changes directly.

Our nurseries are open Monday to Friday for 48 weeks of the year, excluding bank holidays. Most nurseries are open from 8am to 5pm, while some stay open until 5:30pm or 6pm. Check our calendar and your preferred nursery page for more details.

No. We run from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Wrap around is a 3 hour session: 8am to 9am and 3pm to 5pm.

Unfortunately not. We strongly encourage children to attend nursery for at least four sessions a week over two days. This is because children find it easier to settle in and benefit from nursery if they attend regularly.

As a minimum, 50% of staff in any nursery must hold a full and relevant qualification. At Ark Start, our nurseries are led by qualified teachers and we support all our staff to keep learning in line with our values – from apprentices working towards a level three to staff taking on graduate or even post-graduate qualifications.

The staff to child ratio in the UK is laid out in law: 1:8 for three and four year olds (or 1:13 if there is a qualified teacher in the room); 1:5 for two year olds and 1:3 for under 2s.

A play partner is the adult who gets to know your child best at nursery. They help your child settle in quickly, build a strong bond with them and work closely with you as their parent. It is equivalent to the ‘key person’ in the EYFS framework.

Starting nursery is a big moment in you and your child’s life. At Ark Start, we try and support this process by inviting families to attend stay and plays with their child before they start and by conducting home visits for all families. This is all to ensure they feel relaxed and confident coming to nursery. Find out some helpful tips.

At Ark Start, we believe home visits are an invaluable part of the settling in process by helping us to:

1. Build Stronger Relationships: Home visits provide an opportunity for teachers and staff to establish stronger connections with children and their families. Meeting in a more relaxed and familiar environment helps us build a sense of trust.
2. Personalise a child’s experience at nursery: Home visits allow us to better understand your child’s interests, likes and dislikes. We use this information to ensure that the nursery provision is meeting your child’s needs.
3. Involving families in nursery: We hope that by coming to your home, we can help you become more involved in your child’s education. We want you to feel comfortable asking us questions and engaging fully in your child’s time at nursery, including attending events and other opportunities.
4. Reducing Miscommunication: We find that home visits help bridge the gap between school and home, reducing the likelihood of miscommunication and misunderstandings between parents and teachers and making open communication easier when challenging conversations do happen.
5. Creating a Supportive Community: We believe home visits contribute to the creation of a supportive and inclusive school community. When families and educators work together, it creates a positive environment for children to learn and thrive.

Find out more about why we do home visits here.

Your child will be allocated a play partner who will speak to you every day about your child’s day, how well they are settling and what they have been doing.

We know that good sleep is essential for children’s development. Our nursery rooms are designed to easily convert into cosy sleeping spaces for those that sleep.

When children first join the nursery we follow their home sleep routines, and then continue to support children to sleep at the time that is right for them. We find that children generally adjust quickly to snuggling up with their friends after lunch.

We aim to make transitions as minimal as possible and work hard with children to ensure they are ready and excited to start school. When we can, we will accompany groups of children to visit their new primary school and share information between settings.

Parents are required to give one month’s notice if their child is no longer going to attend an Ark Start nursery. This notice needs to be done through Famly, our nursery booking system. Nursery staff cannot agree to booking changes directly.

No. Families are requested to provide nappies and wipes, which we label and store in the changing area.

We ask families to provide a spare set of clothes, suncream and a sunhat in the summer and wellies for outside play.

Children sit down together and eat at tables – we call this ‘family dining’. They will pour their own water and adults will help encourage them to use a knife and fork. We believe mealtimes are an important learning opportunity and an important time for children to develop their social skills.

We know that a healthy, nutritious lunch is an important part of the day, so we make sure that lunch – whether it’s cooked on site or brought in where this isn’t possible – meets the highest standards. We don’t add salt or sugar and we work hard to have a cycle of menus that support children tasting different types of food.

Yes, children can come to nursery with a healthy packed lunch. However, if your child is fussy we would encourage you to speak to their play partner and come up with a plan to eat nursery lunch – over time, and sitting with their friends, we find most children start to eat the meals provided (and enjoy them!).

We can adapt our meals to suit your child’s needs. When you enrol, just let your nursery manager or key adult know.

We recognise that mornings can be a challenge, and we’re committed to doing everything to ensure a positive and warm start to the day for our families.

Families are welcomed by staff in the morning. This is a chance for parents to discuss anything important or simply let us know what they got up to at home so that we can extend this into the nursery.

At home time, parents are encouraged to come in and chat with their child’s play partner and hear all about their child’s day. Parents can also always ask to speak to the manager if there’s anything they would like to discuss in more detail, or arrange a more convenient time.

We also follow careful sign-in and collection procedures, so we always know who’s picking up your child.

You can choose when to bring in or take home your child but we will charge you for the sessions you have booked.

You’ll be able to talk to your child’s play partner or another member of the team at the end of each day, and they will run you through all of the activities and exciting developments of the day. You can also arrange to meet the play partner or nursery manager at a different time if you want to discuss anything in more detail.

Our priority is always staying present with your child, not on our devices, so while we share updates throughout the day, they won’t always be instant.

The perimeter fence of our nurseries are fitted with CCTV. The CCTV is managed by the school (which owns the site) so any requests to view CCTV must be made to the school.

Our nurseries are fully risk-assessed and secure, with staffing above the legal minimum and paediatric first aiders in every setting. Staff go through a rigorous recruitment and induction process. We follow clear procedures for emergencies, medication, hygiene and safe sleep, and only authorised adults can collect your child. Read more about our safety measures and our policies.

If you have any concerns about the nursery or a member of staff, follow the complaints policy.

Our curriculum was designed by the Ark Start early years experts with input from across the Ark network and based on child development evidence. We’ve also taken advice from some of the country’s leading experts and been influenced by a number of international approaches including Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Forest School, as well as emerging evidence on child development.

We don’t currently run a language programme.

Every child will spend time outdoors every day. We aim to ensure that, in line with NHS guidance, our children our physically active for at least three hours a day. We also know that outdoor learning provides opportunities for our children that the indoor environment cannot match so we make sure we are outside every day, whatever the weather.

We do lots of different activities outside, including physical activities, games, planting, Forest School and learning about the local community.

Attending a nursery with well qualified staff like Ark Start offers numerous benefits to both children and their families. Read more about the key advantages of a high-quality nursery education.

We think children should experience awe and wonder and strive to create many opportunities for this through the curriculum. Enrichment opportunities include offsite visits, for example to the farm or to the fire station, and onsite experiences such as baking, hatching ducklings or caring for caterpillars, as well as visits from community professionals including police officers, firefighters, nurses, and doctors.

Throughout the year, we also celebrate a wide range of cultural and seasonal events such as Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Pancake Day, Eid, World Book Day, Anti-Bullying Week, and Mental Health Awareness events.

We also organise family events such as Mother’s Day Tea, Father’s Day Breakfast, Nursery at Night, Sports Day, and our Family Fun Day trip to the farm.

We make sure we go offsite at least once every half term. Details of upcoming trips are shared with families each term.

All children wear hi-vis jackets when on trips and we always ensure we have a ratio of 1:3 so we ask parents to join us if they can. A risk assessment is completed by the nursery manager, signed off by the headteacher and shared with all staff before the trip. A trained first aider will always accompany an offsite trip.

We always maintain ratios of team members at the nursery & enhance our numbers when off-site. We rely on parent volunteers to support the trips and find that parents and children always enjoy it!

No. We assess our children regularly to understand what their next steps should be and share this with families regularly. We will also complete a 2 Year Check, and a Before School assessment which ensures a smooth transition from nursery to school.

We are taking part in a research project to understand the impact of a high quality early education on young children. We are undertaking this project in partnership with the Mercers and Education Policy Institute. This means that we share anonymised data with the researchers who then use the data to better understand the characteristics of effective early education as well as the impact. We are excited about this project and its potential to have an impact on the early years sector more widely.

Our staff are trained to understand children’s development and work closely with families to understand where children are in their learning and what their next steps are. We invite parents in every term to discuss their child’s learning and families can ask to meet their child’s play partners at any time.

We invite parents in for formal meetings every term but you can speak to your play partner about your child at any time!