At Smith’s Wood Primary Academy, we are proud of the outstanding nursery provision we offer our youngest pupils. Currently, we offer the universal entitlement of 15 hours free education for all nursery aged children. Recently, we have become aware that there may be the demand for this to be extended to offer 30 hours free for those that are eligible, namely working parents.

The purpose of this message is to explore whether this is something we can offer for September 2023 and if any of our current parents/carers, who have children (born between 01.09.19 – 31.08.20) would consider our nursery if we can provide the free funded 30 hours.

At this stage, this is a consultation to see whether there would be enough eligible applicants to make a 30 hour nursery viable. To be eligible for the 30 hours free nursery education, the household where the child resides must have both parents working or one parent working in lone parent families. Additionally, this is defined as earning the equivalent of 16 hours per week on national minimum wage, but less than £100,000 per year. To check your eligibility and to find out more details please visit Apply for 30 hours free childcare - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

To enable working parents to take up the offer of free funded 30 hours, we would like to propose that the nursery day would be 9am – 3pm. This would include lunch which would either be an additional cost or children attend with a packed lunch.

The consultation period will last for 3 weeks, if you are eligible and interested in having a 30 hour place, please can you email nurseryapplications@smithswoodpri.solihull.sch.uk expressing your interest and to request an application form by 8th February 2023. Equally, we are still accepting application forms for 15 hours if this is something you have not applied for already.

If you have any questions regarding our nursery and this consultation, please do not hesitate to contact myself via the school office.
A Price
Miss Amy Price
Assistant Principal