Dragonflies Day Nursery is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Dragonflies Day Nursery is dedicated to providing care and learning in a safe and friendly environment to ensure not only that your children have fun and learn to their full potential, but also that you can leave them in our care with peace of mind. We are not a corporate organisation and our primary concern is the wellbeing and happiness of the children in our setting. To enable us to focus on this, and ensure we work in full partnership with parents and carers, we ask that you read and adhere to our terms and conditions.  

If you are considering bringing your child to our nursery, we invite you to contact us to arrange a visit to our fantastic setting, to meet the team and ensure that we have sessions available that fit in with your needs. Once you have decided that you would like your child to attend Dragonflies Day Nursery, we will require you to complete an application form detailing the sessions you would like to book. A non-refundable deposit of £60 is required at this time, £30 of which is an administration fee and the remaining £30 will be deducted from your first invoice. Once these are received, we will arrange a suitable start date, including settling in sessions as needed, or your child will be placed on our waiting list if no space is available at that time. Please note, if a place is offered and subsequently not taken up, this deposit is non refundable.

Dragonflies Day Nursery provide care 52 weeks a year, Monday to Friday. Please note, however, that we are shut on Bank Holidays and Christmas Eve. Our opening hours are 8.00am to 6.00pm. Our sessions are as follows:

Full Day: 8.00am – 6.00pm Morning session: 9.00am – 1.00pm Afternoon session: 1.00pm – 5.00pm

Extended morning session: 9.00am – 2.00pm “School day” session: 9.00am – 3.00pm

We are also able to offer a small number of term time only spaces, which can be discussed with the Nursery manager.  

Please note that we are not fully staffed until 9.00am, so we respectfully ask that you do not arrive early if your child is booked to start at 9am. This is to ensure that we adhere to the staff/child ratio required by Ofsted and can make certain that all children are safe. We thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

We provide a healthy snack each morning and afternoon. We provide a hot lunch and dessert, which is included in your fee, or you can send in a packed lunch from home if you prefer. If you are sending in a packed lunch, please place an ice pack in your child’s lunch box. Please note, we are STRICTLY a “no nuts” setting. Any foods containing nuts will be removed from your child’s lunch. Please be careful when selecting cereal bars for your child.

Please note, children whose whole time at nursery is funded will be charged a consumables fee for a hot meal and snacks, among other consumables, please see below. 

Please can parents/carers ensure that all personal details are kept up to date and inform us immediately of any changes. This includes, but is not limited to, contact numbers, address, emergency contacts, illnesses and allergies. In the case of allergies, it is the responsibility of the parent to keep us informed of the severity of said allergy, and arrange training with a medical professional if any emergency treatment is required, such as an epipen or inhaler.

All child details are kept strictly confidential and staff are required to sign a confidentiality clause in their contracts.

It is important that you let us know if someone else will be collecting your child. If this is someone unknown to us, we will ask you to set up a password to allow us to release your child to this person. Dragonflies reserves the right to refuse collection of any child unless these security procedures are adhered to. Please note, we will not allow any child to be collected by anyone under the age of 18.

We must be notified immediately of any court orders or situations of risk to the child for which any special measures or precautions may need to be put in place.

Our fees are as follows (effective from June 2023):

Full day: £63 (includes hot lunch)

Half day (am): £37 (includes hot lunch)                                               Half day(pm): £35

Extended morning session: £46.25 (9am-2pm)                               “School Day” session: £55.50 (9am-3pm)

Please note, if your child’s hours are fully covered by funding, a daily consumable fee will apply, which covers a hot lunch, snacks and consumables such as art supplies, external activities, hygiene supplies and all other materials. This fee only applies if your child ONLY attends for funded hours.

  

Consumable fees (effective from September 2023)

AM session (9-1): £7        PM session (1-5): £5             9-2 session: £7.75              9-3 session: £8.50         All day: £11.50

Fees are subject to review.

If a parent is more than 10 minutes late collecting their child, a late collection fee of £10 per 15 minutes, or part thereof, will automatically be added to their next invoice.

Please ask us if you need any occasional additional hours. We will do our best to accommodate your needs, but please be aware this is dependent on if we have space at that time. Care required in addition to your contracted hours will be charged at a flat rate of £9.25 per hour, or part thereof, between the hours of 9.00am and 6.00pm. If care is required before 9.00am, this will need to be booked at least a week in advance so we can make sure the Nursery is staffed accordingly. Please note, additional hours will be automatically added to your next invoice upon booking. We regret that sessions are not transferrable and no refunds will be given if you subsequently do not need this session. 

We require four weeks notice to change or reduce sessions.

All invoices are payable by the 1st of each month. Invoices will be sent out by email at least 10 days prior to this date and will come from a company called “Famly”. It is the responsibility of each parent to inform us by the 25th of the month if they have not received their invoice. Payments are to be made by direct bank transfer to Dragonflies Childcare, to the account details included in every invoice. Please include your child’s name as reference.

If invoices are not paid by 1st of each month, a late payment fee of £20 will be incurred, then a further £20 for each week payment is not received by the nursery. Please note, we reserve the right to suspend your child’s space if payments are more than two months late.

Any accidents will be recorded and parents will be required to sign an accident form confirming they have been informed of this. It is the responsibility of the parent/carer to inform the nursery of any accidents or injuries that have occurred outside of the setting. In an emergency situation, staff reserve the right to seek professional medical attention and every effort will be made to contact the parent as soon as possible. By agreeing to these terms and conditions, parents are authorising us to act on their behalf in the best interest of the child, including authorisation of medical treatment if necessary. Any medical decisions will be made by healthcare professionals.

If a child is ill, we respectfully ask that they are kept at home until they are fully recovered. In the case of sickness or diarrhoea, please keep your child at home for 48 hours following the last episode. This is to prevent the spread of illness to our staff and the other children. Whilst we understand that caring for a sick child can be tricky for working parents, please be considerate of others and help us to minimise the possible spread of infection, as this is for everyone’s benefit. If a child falls ill whilst at nursery, we will endeavour to separate them from other children and will expect them to be collected as soon as possible. If we have to give your child any medicine such as Calpol, we will require you to collect your child within an hour as we cannot provide the necessary observation that is needed. For this reason, it is important that you provide us with an up to date emergency “back up” person who can collect your child if you are unable to.

Absences will still be charged as normal and are non transferable.

Please inform us immediately if your child is suffering from any contagious disease or condition.

Please note, we are unable to accept any child that has been given Calpol in the 6 previous hours.

Please help us to help you by naming all personal belongings and items of clothing that your child may bring to nursery. Whilst we will endeavour to keep items safe, we accept no liability for any damage to, or loss of, personal belongings. It is a good idea to send your child to nursery in practical, inexpensive clothes, as we encourage the children to participate in all sorts of activities, and sometimes these can get messy!

We have an obligation and moral responsibility to contact Social Services or other relevant bodies if we have any concern that a child in our care may be the subject of neglect, ill treatment or abuse. As the safety of the child is paramount, this may be done without informing the parent/carer if we believe this may place the child at risk.

We want you and your child to be happy at Dragonflies Day Nursery. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to come and talk to us. Please be aware that at busy times such as drop off or pick up, it may be difficult to chat, but we will make an appointment for you at a mutually convenient time to meet and answer any questions you may have.

We require four weeks written notice if you wish to terminate your contract for any reason. Fees are still applicable during this time, and will continue to apply if a parent withdraws the child during this notice period.  

We reserve the right to terminate a nursery place with immediate effect if a parent, carer or child displays abusive, threatening or otherwise inappropriate behaviour. We will also immediately terminate care if fees are repeatedly more than a week late.

If a parent decides to postpone a starting date after it has been arranged, we reserve the right to charge from that date. Similarly, if, after a starting date has been decided, a parent chooses not to accept the place they have reserved, they will be charged four weeks fees in lieu of notice. Deposits are non refundable in this instance.

Closure of the nursery would only occur in a genuine emergency ie. broken heating/total electricity failure/severe illness outbreak/government advice. In the event of this, detail of the closure would be posted on our Facebook page and website. Fees would be applicable as usual.

If severe weather forces our closure, this is seen as an act of god and payment will need to be made as usual. We will be guided by our local schools as to whether closure is necessary, with the safety of our children and staff being our main concern. Full closure would always be seen as a last resort and would only happen if the local schools deemed it to be the only safe option.

These Terms and Conditions form the basis of the contract between the parent/carer and Dragonflies Childcare. We reserve the right to amend these terms at any time. Please note that the signing of the registration form denotes the acceptance and agreement of these Terms and Conditions.