GOVERMENT FUNDING

Funded Early Education and Childcare at Little Pickles Nursery

Government funding is intended to deliver 15 or 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare.

Government funding is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours or additional services. It’s important to note that government funding is not intended to cover the full cost of childcare.

Details of how the Funding works and how you can apply are shown here.

Little Pickles offers Government Funding in 2 different ways:

1. Through our Fully Inclusive sessions which offer an enhanced experience for your child beyond what the Funding provides and involves charges for meals and snacks, additional hours and activities and the necessary consumables.

2. Or Funded Only sessions through which parents can access a completely free place and opt out of charges.

Please see below the ways in which you can use your Funded hours at Little Pickles.

1. Fully Inclusive Sessions - The Unique Pickles Experience

At Little Pickles, we pride ourselves on our vibrant and tailored curriculum, designed to help children thrive in a natural and inspiring setting offering experiences and learning opportunities beyond what the basic Early Years Foundation Stage offers. Our dedicated staff create engaging and real-life experiences for the children, both indoors and outdoors, using authentic resources to ignite their curiosity.

This hands-on approach fosters meaningful learning, allowing children to develop new vocabulary while deepening their engagement as they explore unfamiliar materials. We are committed to providing each child with an enriching early childhood experience. Our activities encompass a variety of learning opportunities. For instance, cooking over the campfire with Becky, our forest school leader, encourages teamwork and promotes healthy eating habits in our woodland setting. Sessions with Evie, our yoga instructor, help children learn to manage their emotions and reinforce the importance of breathing techniques while building coordination. Moreover, our talented singing teacher, Beth, enriches their speech and language development through interactive singing and sensory experiences. Penelope, our carpentry expert, teaches essential woodworking skills such as drilling, sanding, and hammering, empowering children to create their own unique projects.

Mealtimes at Little Pickles are another key feature of our day, lovingly prepared by our chefs, Nanny Jayne and Jacquie. These family-style meals play a vital role in promoting socialisation and independence as children come together to enjoy nutritious home-cooked food. Table etiquette is a fundamental skill that lasts a lifetime encouraging all ages to be able to sit at the table and have good table manners and serving skills like at home.

Sharing meals not only encourages communication but also allows children to try new flavours in a supportive environment. We feel very privileged to know that our children really enjoy mealtimes with us. Their lovely comments and their excitement to have lunch is a joy to see. A parent passed on this comment “Nanny Jayne provides the most fabulous meals, which I am told are better than Mummy’s”.

We believe that learning should be both magical and memorable. Our wide array of activities ensures that children leave us feeling loved, confident, and equipped to embark on their next adventure in school. It is heartening to hear from teachers who recognise our children’s readiness, often stating, "We know the Pickles children," reflecting the strong foundation we provide and our introduction of Qualified Teachers at the earliest stage. Parents often share their gratitude for the wonderful start we give their children, as we work together to shape a bright future for them.

The Early Years funding covers only essential basics of some of the time spent with us and the Early Years Foundation stage requiring us to charge for these additional experiences. However, we believe these activities/experiences greatly benefit children's development, and we aim for every child to enjoy the full Pickles experience at our nursery.

There is an Additional Services Charge for each session which includes funded hours. This charge is for the services we offer beyond what the Government Funding covers and ensures that we can sustain the high-quality provision that we provide, we could not do this without making these charges which you will need to opt in to. A breakdown of the services this covers is shown here with the associated costs. The amount that we charge enables us to deliver an outstanding service to children and families. For most families these charges can be paid using a Tax-Free Childcare account.

Why is My Place Not Completely Free

The Government schemes offer nursery provision to meet the basic requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage and recognise that the funding does not cover the costs of the childcare we provide by stating that nurseries offering Funding can make charges to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours, activities charges or additional services. We are determined to provide a high-quality nursery for our families where children are individuals and become part of the Little Pickles family; we cannot achieve this on the funding alone. Please ask us for a quotation of costs for the sessions you would like.

2. Funded Only Sessions

If you do wish to access a completely ‘free’ place and opt out of charges, there are funded only sessions with no additional charges. These are currently:

For Parents with 15 Hours Funding per week: Three 4 hour sessions per week from 13:00 to 17:00 for 48 weeks.
For Parents with 30 Hours Funding per week: Three 8 hour sessions per week from 10:00 to 18:00 for 48 weeks.

These sessions fully meet the requirements of the Government to provide the hours of childcare and the EYFS provision stipulated but do not include meals and snacks, additional activities and the full Little Pickles Fully Inclusive package as detailed in the breakdown of services shown below.

Our Parents Selecting Funded Only Sessions policy is shown here, please ask us if you wish to enquire if we have your required sessions available. Optional paid Packages are available to extend the provision provided in these sessions. Please do not request any other sessions as funded only.

All Little Pickles sessions are subject to availability, please contact us to avoid disappointment.

Little Pickles Nursery

January 2026