Parents & Carers
Helpful Links and Contacts
Below are some helpful links, Forms and contacts to help support you and your family. If you can’t find what you are looking for, please contact a member of staff who may be able to help.
Did you know you can follow us on Facebook. We regularly post updates and photos of preschool activities and events on our Facebook page. This is a great way to share our news and keep our friends and families up to date.
Tapestry
Tapestry is the online journal that we use to keep you updated on your child’s activities and progress whilst on their journey with us at pre-school and record their special moments.
It is a great way for parents and key workers to stay in touch. Your key worker will keep this updated weekly, sharing images and key steps that your child has made. Families can also share news and photos with their key workers, helping us to build a strong relationship between the pre-school and home life and culture.
- Each child’s has their own individual account. This is set up so that parents, relatives and carers can access the journals records, photos and memories that have been recorded.
- Parents, carers and families are able to add comments to the journal
- At the end of your child’s time at pre-school parents are able to save the journal and keep the memories
Remember to activate your account by visiting their website or downloading the App. Any problems with your account, please just speak to a member of staff.
Child Development
What to expect in the early years is a great publication that outlines developmental and key stages of development in your child.
Free Childcare Funding
Remember all 3 to 4-year-olds in England are entitled to 570 funded childcare hours per year. At Earith Pre-school 7 we are open term time only, so this usually works out as 15 hours funded a week for 38 weeks of the year. You can choose how you wish to use your funded hours and may choose to share them with other settings, for example, if your child attends a second setting which is open all year, you may wish to ‘stretch’ your hours across the year. This would allow you to claim fewer hours per week but over more weeks of the year. All these options can be discussed with members of staff, so if you are unsure please contact us and we can explore the best options for you.
Check your eligibility for 30 hours funded child care by visiting the www.gov.uk/30 hours free childcare. Here you will be able to check your eligibility for 30 hours funded childcare and create your government gateway account. This will allow you to claim funded childcare by keeping your account up to date. If you need help or information about how to claim, please speak to a member of staff.
You may also be eligible for 2 year old funding, again you can check eligibility by visiting the funding pages on the Government websites.
Tax credits are also available for working families, again more information can be found by visiting the childcarechoices.gov.uk pages, and by reading the leaflet below.
Cambridge County Council have created this useful leaflet to help explain eligibility and how to apply.
If you have completed your eligibility check, and created an account, you can share your eligibility information with us by completing the following form(Parent-carer-declaration). Parent and Carer Declarations should be completed at each claim to confirm that there have been no changes within the household that may affect the funding claim, so we may ask you to complete a declaration more than once a year.
Support at Home
Here at Earith Pre-school 7 we aim to support the whole family as much as possible. We will try and post as much helpful information on our website as possible, with information on support and guidance for families and individuals, but if there is anything else we can help with please just contact us.
Food Bank, St Ives https://www.stivesparishchurch.org.uk/foodbank/
Half Term Holiday Club, over 4’s only https://smartkidzplayandlearn.co.uk/holiday-club-2/