Sandcastles Nursery & Beach School

Call: 01524 831932

Government Funded attendance

Sandcastles provides government Funded Early Years Education through 'Universal 3&4's', 'Working Parent 2,3,4's' and 'Golden Ticket 2's' entitlement.

Sandcastles offers places to children from their second birthday at which point most working families are able to access funding. 

Low income families may also be able to access 2 year funded sessions via Lancashire's Golden tickets https://fisonline.lancashire.gov.uk/SynergyWeb/2yearoldapplications.aspx 0300 123 6712

All children are automatically allocated universal funding from the term after their 3rd birthday regardless of if they were not eligible for funding earlier.

To access 'Working parent 2 / 3 / 4 year old funded attendance' parents need to apply online at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Sandcastles offers year round stretched funding along with a limited number of term time only attendance places.

To ensure you have access to funding from your child’s first session it is essential that parents apply online and send us their eligibility code before term starts i.e. before 31 Aug, 20 Dec, 31 March.

The government funding does not finance foods, non-food consumables, enhanced additional activities nor attendance beyond funded hours. 

Sandcastles offers two attendance packages "Full service" which incurs charges and "Fee Free" which is fully free for parents but requires parents to supply all foods and non-food consumables each day and doesn't allocate children membership of our daily PreSchool club sessions.

Families allocated EYPP status are allocated all services provided by or "Full service" package but no fees are charged.

 https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

What to do ahead of September:

1) Contact us and book your tour where you will collect your registration pack.

2) Check your eligibility for funding and send us your funding details https://www.nursery-morecambe.co.uk/i-have-my-funding-code.php

3) Check your eligibility for Tax Free Childcare

4) Complete and return your child's registration form, requesting your preferred attendance and start month.

5) Send us your child's funding information (see tab at top of page - "I have my funding code")

*Once you have a working family code you are required to log into your funding account and reconfirm your eligibility every 12 weeks if you fail to do this your access to funding will end.

Admissions policy:

We are keen to support parents to plan their careers so we offer places for children to join us at 2 years old from children's 1st birthday. With most children attending part time direct clashs are rare, usually the match between parents attendance requests and our available spaces guides our offer of places.  When direct clashes do occur we prioritise: 

1) Children who have previously been or currently are 'Looked after' 

2) Children with a sibling currently attending Sandcastles

3) Closest home address

We are now registering children to join Sandcastles in January 2026 and beyond, please get in touch to reserve your child's place. 

x Helen