Admission to Nursery

Our nursery has 52 part time equivalent places. Sessions are for children whose 4th birthday falls between 1st September in the year of admission and the following 31st August. Should there be vacancies, we can offer places to ‘rising 3’ children whose 3rd birthday falls between 1st September and 31st December.

Parents may choose to take their 15 hours free childcare with us or, if eligible, parents can take their 30 hours free childcare with us. See here for more information.

We allocate Nursery Places, as agreed by the Governing Board of Northowram Primary School, using Calderdale Early Years Admission Policy.

Calderdale Early Years Admission Policy

If we receive more applications than places available then children are admitted in the following order:

  1. Children under statutory assessment of their Education, Health and Care Needs or with an Education, Health and Care Plan (which names the school);
  2. Children in Public Care (Children who are Looked After), including those who have been adopted or who are subject to a residence order, a special guardianship order; or a child arrangements order.
  3. Children who have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission (Siblings are defined as children with brothers or sisters (including half/step-brothers or sisters) permanently resident in the same household, in attendance at the same school or a school on the same site, on the date of admission);
  4. Other children.

All parents are eligible for either 15 or 30 hours free childcare provision. You can check eligibility via this link.

When places are offered, parents are asked for their preference as to how they would like to take up their provision. These are outlined below.

The options for children whose parents choose 15 hours are:

  • 5 mornings
  • 5 Afternoons
  • All day Monday, all day Tuesday plus Wednesday morning
  • Wednesday afternoon, all day Thursday, all day Friday

The options for children whose parents choose 30 hours are:

  • Monday - Friday 8.45am until 3.30pm

There is a charge for lunchtime provision and children can have a school meal (chargeable) or bring a packed lunch. Children can also go home for lunch.

If any category is oversubscribed, staff will use the above listed criteria to allocate sessions.

Points to note

  • We offer 52 equivalent part time places for take up in September. Nursery places will be offered in writing by 31st March for September
  • Due to the high demand for Nursery places we must insist that parents give their correct address. This must be the child’s permanent place of residence and not a childminder’s or grandparent’s address. We can only use a child’s current address, and an intention to move to another address is not taken into consideration. We may ask parents for evidence of their address. An offer of a place may be withdrawn if a false address is given.
  • Nursery application forms can be collected from the school office or can be downloaded here Nursery Place Application Form
  • The closing date for applications to our Nursery is 1st January and we will only consider applications which meet the above criteria on this date. People who place their child on the list after this date will be considered using the above criteria, if places are available.
  • Admission to our Nursery Class does not guarantee a subsequent place in the Reception Class at our school.

We anticipate that the admission procedure to our Nursery will run smoothly, however, in the unlikely event of any admission problems arising, the Governing Body will make the final decision.