Fees & Setting Info

Fees, Charges & Setting Information

Opening Hours/Holidays

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  • Happy Hares Childcare is open 8am-6pm, Monday to Friday, 50hrs a week.
  • The setting is open over 46 weeks per year
  • The setting is closed for 6 weeks
    • 2 weeks at Easter (Local Authority Easter Holidays).
    • Last 2 weeks in the August (Part of Local Authority Summer Holidays).
    • 2 weeks over Christmas/New Years period (Local Authority Christmas Holidays).

Childminding Fees

  • We charge £80 per child per day which currently includes all meals with our private rate (on non funded days).
  • We will require a £400 non-refundable deposit to secure your place once we have mutually agreed a place is available. This deposit will be held and go towards your last month’s payment.
  • We also accept employers’ childcare vouchers and are registered for the Government Tax Free childcare. https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare.
  • We are registered to offer Free Early Education Entitlement places (FEEE)

Happy Hares Childcare offers the following pattern of provision for early education funded places (FEEE)

We offer the following:

  • 15/*30-hour funding entitlement for under 2s (from 9 months) of eligible working parents (Sept 2025)
  • 15/*30-hour funding entitlement for 2 year olds of eligible working parents (*Sept 2025)

Please Note: We do not offer the following:

  • 15-hour entitlement for parents of 2 year olds who receive some additional forms of government support
  • 15-hour funding entitlement for parents of 3 and 4 year-olds (the universal entitlement)
  • 30-hour funding entitlement for eligible working parents of 3 and 4 year-olds

This is our pattern of delivery:

  • Parents/carers are entitled to Free Early Education Entitlement of 30hrs per week over 38 weeks per year, which equates to 1140hrs per year. Parents/carers that are eligible, will be offered their free hours during school term times. (Sept 2025)
  • Funding is offered as a 10hr session per day.
  • The funded hours are not stretched across the full 46 weeks.
  • Funded hours are available for 38 weeks of the year (Term Time Only).
  • Additional Hours can be purchased at our daily private rate, which currently includes all meals and snacks.

Additional Charges 

Please note the Government funding is intended to deliver 30 hours a week of free, high quality, flexible childcare. It is not intended to cover the costs of meals, other consumables, additional hours, or additional activities.

Meal Charges:

We promote a positive and welcoming eating environment and believe that children sitting together at the table for meals and snacks, and eating the same food, helps to develop good eating habits, self-care skills and table manners whilst also encouraging interaction, language and social skills.

We offer healthy meals throughout the day as a package that includes breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack/milk and tea/dinner (We don’t offer this as a flexible approach).

  • We charge £5.50 per funded day.
  • Any additional full days purchased currently includes all meals and snacks.
  • An alternative to paying for meals can be discussed during communication/visits.
 

Communication

Communication is key to a good working relationship with all parents so we have adopted an online digital system called Kinderly, with the aim to reduce our carbon footprint 👣 by being paper free.

This online system is used to share daily diaries, including meals, sleeping and Toileting and to set up digital contracts, medication requests/approval form, accident reports and sending invoices. We also set up private WhatsApp groups with each family, where we communicate and share photos.

 

Activities

We have a wide range of resources for both indoor and outdoor activities, to promote the learning and development of all age and abilities, which supports the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We make the most of our outdoor space through all seasons. We do many activities focused around the EYFS and 7 areas of learning, such as:

  • Arts and crafts
  • Cooking
  • Forest school activities
  • Baby yoga
  • Sports activities
  • Music and Instruments
  • Mark making
  • Small world and imaginative play
  • Role Play
  • Rhymes & Sounds
  • Dance & Movement
  • Local playground/park visits
  • Growing and harvesting fruit and veg

Where possible, we aim to use and make the most of many local facilities, dependant on cohort, age, ratios, weather etc.

  • Toy libraries/stay and Play groups
  • Role to Play
  • Feel good centre
  • Epping Forest
  • William Morris Gallery
  • Vestry House Museum
  • Walthamstow Wetlands Centre

Settling in Visits

Settling in visits are very important, not only for the child but also for you as parents. For some of you, it might be the first time you are leaving your child and that in itself can be very emotional.
We offer at least 2 to 4 Free, short (30min – 1hr) settling in sessions depending on whether your child needs it, either on a Saturday or Sunday (which can be extended if necessary), generally without parents/carer present, so the child has time to get to know us, and our setting, but parents are welcome to attend the first 1 or 2 sessions.
We aim to do settling in sessions on the weekends, as it enables parents to attend without the worry of taking time off work and allows us to give our full attention.
Once you know your child is happy, safe, being cared for and having fun, you can go to work during the week relaxed knowing they are okay. Some children don’t need settling in sessions especially if they are used to going to other settings etc. We can normally tell if they will manage this when we see them for the first time.

 

Provision

We will Provide all snacks, meals and refreshments, Wellies, Waterproofs, Sun cream,

You must Provide suitable clothing during the winter/summer.months e.g. woolly hats and gloves, sun hats, a change of clothes in case of accidents/ getting dirty/wet during play.
If your child is wearing nappies, please provide nappies, cream and wipes.
Formula/breast milk, if required.

 

Meals

We provide breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and tea. These meals will take into consideration our healthy food policy, allergies and dietary and age requirements and dependent on the time of year/planned activities.
We work from a 3 week rotating Spring/Summer menu over six months and a 3 week rotating Autumn/Winter menu for the next 6 months.
When choosing our meals, we will always consider the children’s current likes and dislikes, dietary requirements and will always provide balanced healthy meals (low salt, low sugar, low fat), a variety of wholemeal options and with at least 2 to 3 vegetable/salad options. All our vegetables are steamed and proteins and carbohydrates are either oven cooked or cooked in the Air Fryer
We will always encourage children to try new foods and eat their vegetables but will persist with this if they refuse, as children’s tastes do change as they grow!
As we know children can be very fussy when it comes to eating, with their tastes, like and dislikes constantly changing.
When children are fussy with their food, especially when eating vegetables, we will always ensure that we can provide regular meals with lots of hidden veg e.g. spaghetti bolognaise, shepherds/cottage pie, mild curry or even try to make food fun and exciting by dishing up food in a fun way or even getting the children to help prep/serve the food.