As Headteacher, I would like to welcome you to our school nursery. I am proud to be the Headteacher of our fabulous school where we place our children at the centre of everything that we do. We value highly, the positive relationships we have built and the benefits of working in collaboration with parents, the local community and St. Mary’s Academy Trust.

Graded as ‘Good’ in all areas by Ofsted (June 2022), our vision is to be the best that we can be and we have a lot to be proud about at Darton Primary School. We have a rich, broad and balanced curriculum and we hope to instil a love of learning in all children. We have high expectations and aspirations of all our staff and pupils and we strongly believe in giving children a range of experiences in their time at primary school that will prepare them both academically and socially for their next stage of their learning.

Our school Nursery offers funded education places to children the term following their third birthday. We have availability to offer twenty 15 hours places and sixteen 30 hours places. Children attend either morning or afternoon sessions over five days or 5 full days for our 30 hours children.

We offer a fun-filled carefully planned curriculum, both indoors and out. Children use the outdoor environment year-round as we believe young children need to access larger spaces and fresh air daily.

Learning through play!

We believe that purposeful play features strongly in good nursery education. It is not a wholly unstructured activity. Through the careful observations of children’s learning and interests, staff are guided in the selection of materials and equipment to ensure that, during their play, children encounter the learning experiences that suit their needs. By their involvement, comment and questions, teachers and teaching assistants help children to learn from such activity. Play that is well planned and fun helps children to think, to increase their understanding and to improve their ability to use language. It allows children to be creative, to explore and investigate materials, to experiment and to draw and test their conclusions.

We firmly believe that such experience is important in catching and sustaining children’s interest and motivating their learning as individuals and in co-operation with others. Each child’s individual needs are met, in an atmosphere that celebrates individuality and diversity, where everyone is included and everyone matters.

We are delighted to offer high quality education for children following their third birthday.

Your child is eligible for a place at a school nursery from the term following their third birthday:

You can apply for them a place at our Nursery following their second birthday. When you apply, your child's name will be added to the waiting list for our nursery. 

For more information on admissions, please follow the link below:

Apply for a school nursery place

Complete the council's application for admission to nursery form and send it to School Admissions, People Directorate, PO Box 634, Barnsley S70 9GG by the beginning of the term before you want your child to start attending (earlier if possible) to give us time to process it.

The council don't acknowledge individual applications, but you can ring them to check that your application's been received on 01226 773677.

You can also download the form below or collect a form from our office. Please remember that completed forms must be returned to council's address and not to the school.

What Darton's nursery offers

15 Hours funded

We offer 10 places in our morning sessions and 10 places in our afternoon sessions

Morning sessions:

Sessions commence daily at 8:45am and finish at 11:45am

Afternoon sessions:

Sessions commence daily at 12:15am and finish at 3:15pm

If your child's application has been successful (the council normally inform parents approximately 6 weeks prior to their child's starting date), we will contact you to discussion transition into our nursery, including whether your child will be allocated a morning session, an afternoon session or a 30 hours session.

30 Hours funded

We offer 16 places for our full day session. The sessions commence daily at 8:45 and finish at 3:15.

Children must bring a packed lunch with them.

Families are eligible for the funding if both parents are working (or the sole parent in a lone parent family) and each parent or carer earns on average:

• a weekly minimum salary equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) for under 25 year olds, or national living wage (NLW) if over 25 years old, and
• less than £100,000 per year

or

• both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on parental, maternity, paternity or adoption leave, or is receiving statutory sick pay, or
• one parent is employed and the other parent has substantial caring responsibilities based on specific benefits they receive for caring, or
• one parent is employed and one parent is disabled or incapacitated based on them receiving specific benefits

For additional information on 30 hours funding, please see the link below.

When to apply

You can apply from when your child is 2 years and 36 weeks old.

You can apply outside of these recommended dates but you might not receive your code in time. You must have a valid code by the end of the month before a new term starts.

Check with us to find out the exact date your 30 hours free childcare starts.

You have to reconfirm your eligibility every 3 months. If you apply more than 3 months before the term starts, you’ll have to reconfirm your eligibility in your account in order to keep your code valid.

How to Apply

To apply for the funding you must complete the online form, this will take around 20 minutes. If you are successfully in your application, you will be provided with a code. You must present this code to the school office alongside your National Insurance number and your child's date of birth.

To begin the process, click on the link below.

Please remember to renew your 30 hours code. You will receive an email from government reminding you to do so. Unfortunately, if you do not renew your code, we will be unable to keep your child's place.

MILK

Cool Milk is the UK’s leading school and nursery milk supplier, working in partnership with local authorities and early years groups to supply free and subsidised school milk to children in pre-schools, nurseries and primary schools.