01. Nursery admissions

Nursery admissions

Barnes Primary School Nursery 2026/27

Closing date for applications Friday 13th March 2026

Offers with be sent out Thursday 1st May 2026

Any applications submitted after the closing date will be placed on our waiting list.

Our mission

Barnes Primary Nursery provides a friendly, enthusiastic, and calm atmosphere, where high levels of engagement and sustained concentration are evident throughout. Our dedicated, compassionate staff effect high quality interactions throughout the day. Outstanding resources are carefully linked to the learning intentions or the skills progressions underway at that time, whilst also providing open-ended scenarios to enable children to follow their own imagination or lines of enquiry and be challenged or supported at any moment.

We are continually motivated by how children learn and give high importance to the Characteristics of Learning: a series of phrases which signal the importance of nurturing children’s innate creativity, autonomy, and curious minds. Our understanding of how children learn underpins everything that we do at Barnes Primary Nursery. Our goal is for all our learners to be safe, happy, determined, empowered, kind, articulate, coordinated, and strong risk takers.

Important Information

Children must be 3 years old by 31st August 2026 to join nursery for the 2026/27 academic year.  Please do not fill in this form unless your child was born between 1st September 2022 and 31st August 2023.  Children should be toilet trained and able to independently use the toilet.

Nursery admissions information for Kingston and Richmond

Our offer

All provision is located in Barnes Primary School Nursery and our onsite Forest School, graded Outstanding by Ofsted at our last inspection in November 2022.  Our nursery operates during term time only.  You can find our term dates here.  Children are expected to attend daily in term time for their chosen hours.

Currently, all 3 and 4 year olds are entitled to up to 15 hours of free early education and childcare per week for 38 weeks a year. 

Some working parents of 3 and 4 year olds are eligible for 30 hours of free early education and childcare for 38 weeks a year: see Free childcare for working parents. 

Barnes Primary School Nursery also offers the opportunity for those who are not eligible for 30 hours to pay for nursery hours beyond their 15 hours universal entitlement; and for those who are eligible for 30 hours to pay for additional hours to extend the nursery week.

Nursery hours

Our nursery opening hours are 08:50 – 15:20 Monday to Friday, a total of 32.5 hours per week, but we offer alternative hours as follows:

15 hours (mornings only):

We offer a small number of morning-only places, delivering 15 hours per week of free early education and childcare.  These run from Monday to Friday between the hours of 08:50 and 11:50.

There is no cost for this morning-only provision but you must confirm that Barnes Primary School Nursery is your primary childcare provider and that you are claiming your universal 15 hours entitlement (and not any extended entitlement) at our nursery.

30 hours only:

For eligible parents who wish to access 30 hours per week free early education without additional hours or special provision, we offer the option of a shortened day on Tuesdays.  Children attend from 08:50 to 15:20 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and from 08:50 to 12:50 on Tuesdays.

There is no cost for this 30 hours’ provision providing that you remain eligible for the extended entitlement and provide the nursery with a validated HMRC eligibility code for each period. 

Full-time (32.5 hours) provision:

a) 30 hours free early education plus self-paid session on Tuesday afternoons:

This option is for those families who are eligible for 30 hours’ free early education and childcare but wish to extend to a full-time school week by self-paying for the additional 2.5 hours.  Children attend from 08:50 to 15:20 from Monday to Friday, enjoying a chargeable afternoon of Forest School, including fire skills and open-air cooking around our fire pit, on Tuesdays.  These specialist sessions have been designed by our qualified Forest School teacher to develop confidence, independence, social skills, language, communication, gross and fine motor skills and self-regulation.

There is no charge for the 30 hours’ entitlement as long as you are able to provide a valid HMRC eligibility code throughout your child’s time at the nursery.  A charge of £35 per week (payable termly in advance) will be made for the specialist 2 ½ hour session on Tuesdays.

b) 15 hours free early education plus self-paid afternoon provision:

This option is for those who are eligible only for 15 hours free early education and wish to self-pay for the additional 17.5 hours per week. Children attend from 08:50 to 15:20 from Monday to Friday, which includes the specialist Forest School and fire pit session designed to foster holistic development on Tuesdays. 

There is no charge for the 15 hours’ entitlement.  A charge of £215 per week (payable termly in advance) will be made for afternoon provision.  This fee includes the detailed specialist session.

Why sign my child up for a whole day in Nursery?

The nursery experience at Barnes Primary School is quite exceptional. The staff are highly skilled with two qualified teachers (one who is Forest School trained), two level 5 and one level 3 qualified leaders-of-learning.  The learning environment is outstanding: over the past few years, we have spent over £250,000 on our nursery provision and the quality is state of the art. Your child will be incredibly well cared for, nurtured and educated. Having this additional time within such an exceptional, stimulating environment will enable your child to flourish in a play-based learning setting. 

Commitment

In order to allow children to settle in our nursery without disruption, the school asks that parents commit to their chosen hours profile for the academic year.  If family circumstances change, we encourage you to speak to us as soon as possible in order that we can endeavour to accommodate changes with sufficient planning to avoid unsettling your child. 

Other charges

School meals

Children accessing morning sessions only leave before lunchtime.  All other children eat lunch in nursery each day, including 30 hours children who leave after lunch at 12:50 on Tuesdays.  Unless there are exceptional circumstances, children are expected to take a school lunch as this forms part of their personal, social and motor development. Barnes Primary provides freshly-prepared on site, nutritious, gold menu standard, hot meals each day. The current term’s menu can be found on the website. There is an additional cost of £2.95 per day for meals, unless your child is eligible for Free School Meals.

Trips and visitors

Through the academic year, we arrange occasional trips out and visitors to our nursery, for which ad hoc charges are made.  These are calculated on the cost of the event but, as an indication, the total cost for trips and visitors in the current academic year is £8.60 per child.

Charges table

Nursery fees:

Other charges:

Admission Criteria

Nursery places are allocated on the following criteria:

1. Looked After Children who are currently in public Care and previously Looked After Children who have left Care due to adoption, special guardianship or child arrangements order.
2. Children who have an exceptional medical, social or educational need that requires their attendance at a particular school.
3. Children who have siblings already attending the school.
4. Children of staff working directly for Barnes Primary School for at least two years.
5. Children living closest to Barnes Primary School.

Home Address

If you change your home address during the application process, you must inform the school within two weeks of your move. If you use an incorrect address this will be considered an attempt to obtain a place on the basis of false information and your application will be withdrawn.

Starting Reception

The acceptance of a nursery place does not guarantee a place in Reception class. There is a separate application process for starting primary school, made through the Local Authority. If you require further information regarding admissions to Barnes Primary School for reception year 2026, please consult the: London Borough of Richmond primary school admissions page.

Nursery 2025/26

Our nursery is currently full. Please contact Lucy on 020 8876 7358 if you wish to enquire about a place for this academic year.

Nursery 2026/27

The deadline for nursery applications for next academic year is Friday 13th  March 2026. Any applications received after this date will be placed on the waiting list.

Use this form if your child will be 3 years old by 31st August 2026:

Morning Nursery application form 2026/27

Full-time Nursery application form 2026/27

30 hours of funded childcare for working parents of 3- & 4-year-olds explained:

• Follow this link: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ 

30 hour eligibility guide and checker: 

Parents can check whether they could be eligible for a range of government childcare offers, including 30 hours, via Childcare Choices at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk, or the Childcare Calculator at: https://www.gov.uk/childcare-calculator. Those who could be eligible for 30 hours and/or Tax-Free Childcare will be directed to the digital childcare service to apply. The eligibility criteria for 30 hours and Tax-Free Childcare are broadly aligned.

For a more detailed guide to the 30 hours eligibility criteria see the guide at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/30-hours-free-childcare-eligibility. Parents will be able to apply for both 30 hours and Tax-Free Childcare at the same time by entering their details once. HMRC will check parents’ eligibility for both schemes at the same time. Parents will not need to apply through the digital childcare service if they only want to claim the universal 15 hours entitlement for 3- and 4-year-olds.

How to apply for 30 hours extended entitlement:
Parents should apply via the childcare service. You will be asked to:

1. Create a Government Gateway account if you do not already have one. If you do, you will need to sign into Government Gateway to verify your identity before accessing the childcare service. You can find details and instructions on how to register for a Government Gateway account at gov.uk.
2. Once in the childcare service, enter your personal details including: name, address and National Insurance number and the same details for your partner (if you have one).
3. Declare that you expect to meet the income requirements over the coming three months.
4. Declare whether you are in receipt of any relevant benefits.

Once you have completed your application, if you are eligible, you will have a childcare service account. In the ‘secure messages’ section of your account, you will receive messages regarding your eligibility. You will be given an 11-digit ‘eligibility code’ for your child – this can be found in the ‘30 hours free childcare’ section of your childcare service account and in your ‘secure messages’ section. These codes normally start with ‘500’. However, there are a small number of cases where you might have a temporary code starting with ‘11’. You will be asked to take this code (along with your National Insurance number and child’s date of birth) to us to reserve your 30 hours place. If you need assistance to apply, or do not have access to the internet, please call the childcare service Customer Interaction Centre on 0300 123 4097 and you can apply over the phone. If you encounter any problems during the application process or when accessing your childcare service account, you should direct your queries to the childcare service Customer Interaction Centre.

The Reconfirmation Process:
This is important. Please make a note in your diary of when you need to reconfirm your code.

Every three months you will need to reconfirm that the details you entered on your application are still accurate. This is to check that you are still eligible. You will be prompted, via text message and/or email, four weeks before the reconfirmation deadline and again two weeks before the deadline if you still have not reconfirmed. This prompt will tell you that you have a secure message to read. This message will remind you to reconfirm and can be found in the ‘Secure messages’ section of your childcare account. If your circumstances have changed, you will need to log into your childcare service account, update the information and resubmit your details. If your circumstances have not changed, you will only need to tick a box saying that your details have not changed. If you have completed your original application over the phone you will need to phone the Customer Interaction Centre to reconfirm your eligibility. Temporary codes beginning ‘11’ expire and so you will need to reconfirm by completing a childcare service application online. You will need to reconfirm regardless of whether your child has started their 30 hours place. If you miss the reconfirmation deadline, or if your circumstances change, you will receive a message telling you that your eligibility has lapsed.

In these circumstances, you will then need to pay for additional hours that your child is attending. Please refer to the table on our Nursery Admissions page  for current charges.

Important information from HMRC:

• A parent can only take up 30 hours once both of these conditions are met: a child starts the term following their third birthday and the term following receipt of their eligibility code from HMRC, whichever is later.
• Parents should be encouraged to apply the term before their child meets the age criterion to ensure they can access a place at the start of the term after their child turns three. If not, they will need to wait until the following term to access their 30 hours place. Please note that the earliest a parent could receive a 30 hours code for their child will be 16 weeks before they turn three years old. If a parent applies before this point, they will need to wait until reconfirmation before applying for 30 hours.
• Like the universal 15 hours entitlement, parents cannot claim 30 hours free childcare once their child has reached compulsory school age (the term following their fifth birthday). Please note the latest a parent could receive a 30 hours code is 22 weeks after the child turns five. It is therefore important that providers check the age of the child as well as the code. Parents cannot claim their 30 hours in addition to a full-time reception place in a state-funded school.

One additional link that maybe helpful:

• https://childcare-support.tax.service.gov.uk/par/app/applynow

Nursery

Monday 9th March at 16:30 Please register your attendance using this link

Open Hour dates for 2027-28 academic year will be scheduled shortly.

(Please note that a place at Barnes Primary Nursery does not entitle you to a place in Reception the following year.  You will need to apply for the main school via the borough’s normal application process.)