Homerton Early Years Centre

Admissions into The Nest

Policy Statement

It is our intention to make The Nest accessible to children and families from all sections of the local community.We aim to ensure that all sections of our community have access to the setting through open, fair and clearly communicated procedures.

Procedures

We ensure that information about The Nest is accessible, in written and spoken form and, where appropriate, in more than one language. Information added to our website is accessible in many languages. To be eligible for place children must be two years old on the date that they start attending The Nest.

Children requiring a full-time place may have preference over one requiring a part-time place. This is dependent upon work commitments, occupancy and availability.

We arrange our waiting list in birth order. In addition places are allocated in line with the following priorities:

  1. children who are looked after
  2. children who have been referred because of a high level of need
  3. children with a sibling already attending The Nest or Nursery
  4. children in our catchment area
  5. children of contracted members of staffand governors of the Homerton Early Years Centre
  6. children not living in our catchment area

When our waiting list is full but a space becomes available we may take inchildren who are looked after or who have been referred because of a high level of need. Once our waiting list is full it will be closed so that new admissions do not take priority over those who have been waiting for a place to become available. Our waiting list is considered full when it reaches 50 children and will be closed until there are 25 children or less on our list.

We consult with families about the opening times of The Nest to ensure we accommodate a broad range of family need.We are flexible about attendance patterns to accommodate the needs of individual children and families, providing these do not disrupt the pattern of continuity in the setting that provides stability for all the children. The minimum attendance level is two sessions per week taken on different days of the week.