Hilltop Nursery

Nursery class timings:  

Arrival at school: from 8:45am – 9.00am 

Register: 9.00 am  

Phonics: 9:05 to 9:30am  

Morning session: 9.00am to 12.00 pm 

Lunch and outdoor play: 12.10 pm to 1.10 pm  

Afternoon session: 1.10 pm to 3.30 pm  

Home time / end of the school day: 3.30 pm  

The morning and afternoon sessions include adult led input for maths and phonics etc. Throughout the day there are a wide variety of activities and opportunities to learn through child initiated play.

*It is very important that children are collected on time from the classroom. If your child has not been collected by 3:35pm they will be placed in afterschool club.  A charge will be incurred.  

Due to the way in which nursery funding works from September 2026 we are having to make some changes to our sessions:  

15 hours funding:

2 x days 9:00am – 3:30pm

1 x day 9:00 – 11:00am or 1:30 – 3:30pm

30 hours funding

Monday – Thursday 9:00am – 3:30pm

Friday – 9:00am – 1:00pm

Top Up Nursery Fees  

There are several different government schemes which parents can use to pay for childcare depending on personal circumstances e.g., Tax-free childcare, 30 hours free childcare, Universal Credit for childcare.  

If you exceed your entitled funding you will be charged for all extra sessions as follows:  

Additional costs are:

• £6 per additional hour above funded sessions (full-time places are 32.5 hours)
• School lunch: £3.25 (or children may bring a packed lunch)

Each child will be issued with an individual letter specifying their actual allocated days and times.

KiddiActive

Our Nursery children have a wonderful opportunity to attend weekly sessions facilitated by Primary Stars, which are an Ashbourne based Sports provider/ These sessions are called Kiddi Activ. These sessions are an enhancement to their broad curriculum and are payable via Arbor. These are currently £2 per session.

Trips/Events

Throughout the year we offer our children a variety of trips and events to support their learning and development. The cost of these are shared on an individual trip/event basis.