FAQs

There is no ‘set’ time for a child to start nursery, but generally children adapt well to the nursery environment and routines from around 6 months old.

Nursery is hugely important in helping support the emotional and social development of children, as well as giving them a safe space to have fun and express themselves, whether through messy play, garden activities or story telling.

Of course! We encourage children to join parents on their visit to Hopscotch so they can see the welcoming and stimulating environments themselves as well as the chance to take part in some activities.

Yes we do. Please see our Funding Section for more information. See below for full funding changes from September 2025.

1. What has changed with funded childcare and why?

The government has introduced new rules to ensure families receive their funded childcare hours free at the point of use. These rules prevent nurseries from requiring families to pay for food, nappies, or other extras to access funded places. Nurseries can still offer extras – but they must be clearly optional, not mandatory.

2. Why does this make things harder for nurseries?

The funding provided by the government unfortunately does not cover the full cost of delivering high-quality early years care. That includes staffing, hygiene supplies, enrichment, rent, training, and systems. Previously, we balanced this by offering funded hours as part of a broader full-day package. Now, we are required to offer the funded portion separately — which creates significant funding gaps unless families choose to contribute.

3. What is Hopscotch doing to address this?

We’ve introduced the Hopscotch Enrichment Fee of £1.50 (£1.25 at Hopscotch Worthing) per funded hour. This fee helps us continue delivering the quality, consistency, and joy that families value. It supports both everyday care consumables and inspiring enrichment activities — and keeps things simple and consistent for families and staff.

4. Why should I pay the Enrichment Fee?

Because we believe early childhood deserves more than the bare minimum. The government funding only covers a basic level of provision during limited hours. The Enrichment Fee is the difference between basic and brilliant and is what makes Hopscotch special, safe, warm, stimulating, and full of rich experiences. And at just £1.50 (£1.25 at Hopscotch Worthing) per funded hour, it’s less than the price of a coffee — yet it unlocks a world of wonder and support for your child.

5. What happens if I don’t pay the fee?

You are entitled to opt out. But please be aware that if you do:

• You must bring in all consumables daily (nappies, wipes, bedding, toothbrush, etc – as set out above)

• Your child won’t participate in enrichment trips or workshops unless you pay per session

• Your child will still receive the core EYFS curriculum — but without enhancements

• Repeated failure to bring consumables will result in a charge to ensure fairness to others

6. What does this mean for my child’s experience?

If you opt in to the Enrichment Fee, nothing changes — your child receives everything they always have. If you opt out, the experience will be more limited and you’ll need to take on more responsibility as a parent. For example, you’ll need to bring everything from snacks and suncream to a toothbrush and spare flannel. It’s a legal requirement that this be an option, but it’s not how we believe high-quality care should feel.

7. How does this affect the nursery’s future?

Without family support via the Enrichment Fee, Hopscotch (like many nurseries) would struggle to remain financially viable. Our model ensures we stay sustainable while maintaining the highest care standards. It’s fair, transparent, and designed to protect everyone’s experience — now and for future generations.

8. What if I can’t afford the fee?

Please speak to your Nursery Manager. We’ll always try to find a solution, such as payment plans or accessing support. We don’t want finances to be a barrier — we’re here to help not hinder.

9. Can I opt in to care consumables but not enrichment activities?

No. Under the new model, and as per the new government rules, the consumables and enrichment are to be offered as a single, integrated fee covering both categories. This ensures clarity, fairness, and simplicity for all families — and helps us operate sustainably. If you choose to opt out, it applies to the full package.

10. What about access to Famly – is that affected?

Although digital communication tools like Famly significantly improve the experience for families and staff, and come with a significant price tag for us, we are not permitted to include them in the enrichment list. We cannot charge for them as a standalone item, nor include them in the enrichment fees. We still choose to invest in Famly because it aligns with our values and benefits every child — but we do so at a cost that government funding does not cover.

We also invest heavily in premium technology and software and automation and training to ensure our staff are more present with children.

11. How can I support Hopscotch?

By choosing to opt in to the Hopscotch Experience Fee, you’re helping to ensure we can provide the same level of care to every child registered at a Hopscotch nursery – this is something we feel very strongly about. Choosing the enrichment fee will also help limit the operational challenges our nursery staff encounter, which means they will have more time to be available and present with your children.

12. Is this allowed under DfE and Local Authority guidance? 
Yes. All charges are voluntary, clearly explained, and fully compliant with funding rules. We will not prevent access to funded hours for families who opt out – but we are also entitled to offer enriched, optional services at an additional cost. 

Invoices will reflect the following items, which we are required to set out clearly (from January 2026):

• Free entitlement hours

• Private paid hours (if any)

• Enrichment fees

• Any additional per-trip contributions

13. What’s included?

To help families make an informed decision, we’ve clearly outlined what’s included in the Hopscotch Enrichment Fee under two categories: Care Consumables and Activity Enrichment.

Care Consumables

These are everyday essentials that support comfort, hygiene, and wellbeing:

• Nappies (all sizes)

• Wipes and nappy sacks

• Nappy creams

• Tissues

• Bibs

• Flannels

• Bags for soiled clothing

• Suncream

• Summer and Winter Hats

• Spare clothes

• Toothbrushes and toothpastes (for supervised brushing as per EYFS)

• Bedding (sheets, blankets, etc.)

• Breakfast and healthy snacks (prepared onsite)

• Milk (provided throughout the day at snack in addition to subsidised milk quota)

Activity Enrichment

These are additional experiences and resources that support children’s joy, learning, and development beyond the core curriculum:

• Hopscotch Explorers nature sessions

• Boogie Mites musical sessions

• Additional dance and creative workshops

• Cultural celebrations and themed events

• Literacy and communication enrichment activities

• Sensory play enhancements

• Educational trips into the local community i.e. libraries, stations, museums

• Transition support and enhanced school readiness materials

• Additional staffing to support enrichment and excursions

Under government rules, these extras cannot be charged as part of funded hours. We must clearly itemise them separately, and families must have the option to opt out of paying for them. However, they are included in the Hopscotch Enrichment Fee.

If you opt out of the Enrichment Fee, you will need to:

• Provide all consumables listed above (clearly labelled and restocked daily)

• Pay separately for each trip or workshop (price depends on the type, location and duration but generally will be around £7.50 per trip or workshop)

• Accept that your child will receive only the core EYFS curriculum (no additional enrichment)

14. Will I have to change my sessions to full days?

No, if you have an existing half day booking this will be honoured with the new funding structure applied. Your child’s sessions do not need to increase to our recommended full day unless you choose to do so after discussion with your Nursery Manager. However, any new sessions booked will be required to be full days going forward to allow for consistency within the Nurseries as this is developmentally better for under 5's.

15. Will my child automatically receive funding?

No, parents and carers will still need to apply for funding through the Government Childcare Choices website and reconfirm their code via HMRC approximately every 3 months. From September 2025 children aged 9 months+ with a working parents code can claim up to 30 hours. Children aged 3 and over can claim up to 15 hours without a code.

16. Why can’t I claim the full 30 hours per week?

The Government funding of 30 hours per week is on a term time (38 weeks) only basis. As we are open all year round this would mean many weeks across the year at full fees. We will be spreading the funding across the full 51 weeks we provide childcare. This means that parents can claim up to 22 hours per week the whole year round without big hikes in fees due to non-funded weeks.

17. Is all food included in the enrichment fee?

Breakfast and healthy snacks are available to children throughout out the day. Lunches and teas can be provided at an additional cost from our external catering supplier Little Tums. Please discuss this with your Nursery manager.

If you have any other questions that are not covered here, please don’t hesitate to contact your nursery manager or email our office team at office@hopscotchmail.com

We’re proud to offer care that’s thoughtful, inspiring and built around what children really need to thrive.

Our fees are carefully set to reflect the experience, passion and attention we put into every day — while offering real value to families.

At Hopscotch, we understand that every family is different — and flexibility matters.

From September 2025, we’ll be offering full-day sessions for all new joiners across our nurseries. This change supports consistency and provides a more developmentally enriching experience for children under five.

To reflect this, the minimum attendance will be one full day per week.

We offer a diverse and nutritious range of healthy snacks at allotted times throughout the day. Our catering provider Little Tums has provided nutritious meals for Hopscotch for over a decade - read more here.

We want to ensure we are flexible for all our families needs and so we are happy for parents and carers to provide packed lunches for their children. We have some guidelines here.

Yes, that's no problem. All of our snacks are vegetarian as standard and for those families choosing Little Tums there is a vegetarian option available.

Yes, that's no problem. We are happy to replace any dairy products in our snacks with healthy vegan alternatives. For those families choosing Little Tums there is a vegan option available.

We have over 36 years of experience in childcare and we understand how to support our children in the early stages of their development. Weaning is such an important part of helping children develop healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives. We work with our parents to ensure smooth transitions from milk or formula to solid foods. We have even run a webinar on the topic with a well-respected local nutritionist.

We take allergies very seriously and we have a robust Food Safety Management System in place across all of our nursery settings. All staff receive allergy awareness training before starting at Hopscotch and staff involved in serving snacks or lunches also undertake further training. We also have special allergy, dietary and medical information boards up in each nursery room to ensure all staff have all important information about our children to hand all the time.

All snacks, milk and even breakfast (for those at nursery before 8.30am) are included in our fees. Little Tums hot lunches and teas are additional extra costs - see here for more information.

Yes - standard Pampers nappies are included in our fees. If you prefer to use other nappies that’s fine but these will need to be provided to us.

Yes - all of our nurseries have gardens and outdoor space. We take our children out every day, whatever the weather. We also organise regular trips out to our local communities for our children and we have also recently launched the Hopscotch Explorers outdoor learning programme. In addition, all our nurseries also have soft play areas which mean our children can have fun with physical play even in the depths of winter!

See here. As a first step we recommend you organise a visit to your preferred setting and our Nursery Management team will advise of availability. You can then register your child here.

We are closed on bank holidays.

No, we are not open at all during the Christmas period. We close at 4pm Christmas Eve and we do not reopen until the first working day of the new year.

As per our terms and conditions, fees must be paid if your child is absent from nursery for any reason. This includes absence from illness, holidays or other circumstances such as bad weather conditions or transport problems. This also includes time away from nursery due to self-isolation or quarantine, which will be treated like illness.

We have a handy pre-nursery checklist which you can see here. Generally though we suggest a bag which includes a couple of spare pairs of clothes, any comforter that your child might need and any medications too. We will provide bottles and formula for infants.

Your child will be assigned a Key Worker who will be theirs and your main point of contact at nursery. They will ensure you are given specific feedback every day your child comes to Hopscotch. We will also provide a daily update to you via Famly every day and a monthly observation which shows your child’s progress. You can also check in with your Nursery Manager throughout the day via Famly for an update if that’s helpful.

Hopscotch has a proven track record supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and we have a specialist SENCo at each of our nursery settings. We encourage you to discuss your child’s needs on your visit and we can discuss how we can best support your child and you whilst at Hopscotch.

Yes - as part of our Safer Recruitment process, all prospective staff are DBS checked before being allowed to commence employment at Hopscotch.

Yes - we aim to have all our permanent staff Paediatric First Aid trained within the first 3 months of them starting work at Hopscotch. Currently over 95% of our permanent staff team are paediatric first aid trained, well beyond Ofsted’s minimum requirements.

We are legally bound by the staff ratios required by Ofsted which are for under 2s - 1:3, 2-3yrs 1:4, and over 3s 1:8.

From September 2023 the legal ratios for 2-3yr olds changed from 1:4 to 1:5. However, at Hopscotch we have continued to implement the 1:4 ratio as we believe this will best support the learning outcomes for the children in our care. However, occasionally due to staff sickness or unexpected absence we might need to utilise these newer ratios.

We encourage you to speak directly to your preferred nursery site to discuss your needs and to see if we can accommodate your child at Hopscotch.

We use the online learning journal Famly to record magical moments at nursery, track development and record key milestones. We will provide you with a daily update with an accompanying picture, either of your child or an activity they have been involved in. And you will also receive a more in-depth monthly observation from the team on your child’s progress. You can access Famly online or download the app.

Yes we can give children their medication when it has been prescribed by a doctor or healthcare professional. The medication will need to be clearly labelled with the child’s name, date of birth and must be dated. Unfortunately if this information is not available then we cannot administer medicine to your child whilst they are at nursery.

In certain urgent circumstances, such as when a child has a high temperature or an allergic reaction and parents are not able to quickly come to collect them, we may consider administering over-the-counter medicines like calpol or piriton to reduce any risk of harm to the child. We will always seek further consent from the parents before doing so.

Over 36 years of providing childcare we have developed our own bespoke curriculum which focuses on supporting children to develop into curious, confident and sociable individuals. We offer structured and well-resourced learning environments as well as having a strong focus on physical development through indoor and outdoor play. 

Our nursery rooms tend to focus on creating warm, soft and cosy spaces for our children to be nurtured and developed. As they grow older and move into the preschool parts of our settings, we adopt a more structured approach to learning which emphasises independence and self-sufficiency. We also focus on strengthening social bonds, all with the aim of ensuring our children are school ready when the time comes for them to eventually leave us.