What to expect 

Joining Little Forest Folk

We understand that leaving your child at nursery for the first time can be challenging, sometimes more for parents than for the children, so we work hard to ensure your child settles quickly. We are fortunate enough that the very essence of our setting generally ensures much quicker settling in than conventional nurseries. This is due to a combination of the familiarity of the outdoors and the relaxed feeling of the forest, mixed with the fact that there is so much in nature that really captures children’s imaginations and fascination.

Timings & Drop off

Our full days run from 8am to 6pm with flexible drop off between 8am and 8.45am, and collection between 4.30pm and 6.00pm. We recommend dropping off before 8.30am if you would like your little one to have breakfast with us and picking up after 5.15pm if you'd like them to have eaten dinner before heading home. On a Friday we have an early collection time for everyone at 3.30pm. Full days run all year round 51 weeks of the year, we only close for one week over Christmas and bank holidays.

Our sessional days run from 9.30am to 3.30pm, term time only (not available at Little Forest Folk Winkworth). We spend 6 hours adventuring in the great outdoors, we have snacks and lunch which are included. We open booking for Holiday Camps during school holidays and enrolled families are given priority booking 6 weeks before the start of each camp if you would like to book childcare through the term breaks or summer holidays.

Our half days (only available at Little Forest Folk Winkworth) will run from mornings: 8am-1pm and afternoons: 1pm-6pm, all year round.  Our morning children will have breakfast alongside our full day children and then venture out into the forest for our morning activities and enjoy a morning snack and lunch before collection at 1pm. Our afternoon children will join our full day children out and about in the forest for our afternoon activities and will enjoy an afternoon snack and dinner before collection at 6pm. 

Setting up Famly - Our online nursery system - Important!

Famly - Nursery software for families

You will shortly receive a link via email to set up an account with “Famly”. Famly is our online nursery software that enables our nursery team to record important information about your child and to communicate with parents.

The system allows you to manage your child’s profile, see your child's daily activity and daily snaps in real time.

Once you have received the link please:

• Set up your login to your child’s profile

• Then proceed to enter the required information to complete your child’s profile.

•  We also recommend downloading the free Famly App.

Guidance on adding your information onto Famly

• Once you’ve set up and received your Famly login please:

• Visit your child’s profile and click on “About”.   

• You should now see ‘Basic Info’, ‘Health’, ‘Sensitive Information’ and ‘Permission’ Tabs. We require you to fill out all of these sections in full.

• Please make sure to add four emergency contacts including yourself as well as your address. 

If you have any questions about Famly and how to use it, please do let us know.

How invoicing at Little Forest Folk works 

Fees & Invoices

For children attending sessional days, term time only:

Invoices will be sent termly in advance by email. Calculations for termly invoices are based on the number of sessional days attended per week multiplied by the number of weeks in the term - this will vary slightly from term to term.

Invoices will be due on the 12th of each term. 

For children attending full days, (and half days at Little Forest Folk Winkworth), all year round:

The invoices are sent monthly in advance by email. Calculations are based on the 51 weeks of the year that we are open, and divided by 12 months, so your invoice amount is the same each calendar month.

Invoices will be due on the 12th of each month. 

Where to find our full fee information and breakdowns:

Chiswick fees

Fulham fees

Morden fees

Putney Heath fees

Twickenham fees

Wimbledon Village fees

Wimbledon fees

Winkworth fees

How to pay your invoice - Important

Payment

Please note that we are unable to accept card or direct debit payments for our fees, and will require them to be paid via either bank transfer, Tax Free Childcare, vouchers or via the Enjoy Benefits workplace benefit scheme. The primary contact will automatically become the bill payer on your account, so if you would like another recipient or someone else to pay the bill on your account, please let us know so that we can add the recipient by emailing finance@littleforestfolk.com.

When sending a payment via BACS or Bank Transfer, please use the correct bank details below for your nursery site:

Chiswick , Fulham, Morden,  Wimbledon & Winkworth nurseries:
Natwest Bank
Little Forest Folk Ltd
Sort code: 60 60 02
Account Number: 46487778


Putney Heath, Twickenham & Wimbledon Village nurseries:
Natwest Bank
Little Forest Folk Too Ltd
Sort code: 60 22 28
Account Number: 69689636

When sending a payment, if you could please use your little one's name as the payment reference, or for one-off payments the invoice number is also acceptable.

If you need support to do this, please email our finance team on finance@littleforestfolk.com.

Bank Holidays and Inset Days

All nurseries will be closed during Inset Days and Bank Holidays and there will be no children attending on these days. Our Inset days are valuable time used for staff training and planning. We usually schedule a total of 4 inset days throughout the entire year and we try to rotate these so they do not fall on the same day of the week, so it is fair on all families. Please note, bank holidays and inset days do need to be charged for and you can find out more about this in our Terms and Conditions here.

Vouchers or Tax Free Childcare

If you would like to pay using childcare vouchers, then please see our account numbers here. If you would like to pay via Tax Free Childcare (TFC), please search for Little Forest Folk within the TFC website in order to send us payment. Please note, we need any payments via these methods to be paid by the 1st of month or term so that we receive them on time to credit your account before invoices are due. The remaining balance can be taken via Direct Debit on 12th of month or term.

Government Funding

All children are entitled to 15 hours of Government funding from the term after their third birthday and some families may be eligible for 30 hours of funding from when their little one turns 9 months old, you can check to see if you’re eligible for the Working Parents 30 hour funding here. If you’d like to apply for Government funding then please contact office@littleforestfolk.com who can provide the forms for you. 

Settling in Sessions

You will be offered two settling in sessions free of charge before your child starts with us in the forest. During the first session, you will come along and stay for the duration with your child on site. After the first settling in session, the team will discuss with you how your child has settled and we will then tailor the second settling in session to suit the needs of you and your little one. If your child needs additional settling in time this can also be arranged but generally we tend to find that two is enough.

Our Families Experience Team will be in touch to schedule the dates and times for your settling in sessions, along with your child’s official start date.

What to wear?

It is important to dress little ones in weather appropriate clothing, you can find our full recommended kit list here.

Once received, please make sure that your child arrives dressed ready in their waterproofs each day they attend.

We will provide a set of Roarsome waterproofs for your child and you will be given these at your settling in sessions. Our Roarsome waterproofs have a removable fleece lining which means they can be worn all year round through the different seasons. If you would like extra sets of waterproofs you can purchase these through us for £120 per set and by emailing office@littleforestfolk.com.

What to bring?

Please make sure all of your little ones belongings are clearly labelled and that you bring along a backpack with spare clothing and a labelled water bottle too. It's important children are able to carry backpacks independently so should be a good child-size and able to carry spare clothing.

Key Workers

We allocate a key worker for your child before they start with us and you will be introduced to them when you child starts in the forest.

We would also like to reassure parents that all educators spend time with all of the children which combined with our very high educator to child ratio, means everyone knows your child well. At the end of each day you will receive a handover at pick up time, where one of the team will update you on your child's progress and let you know what they have done that day.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your nursery manager via email if there is anything that they can do to help.

Notice Period

Full day children, (and half day children at Little Forest Folk Winkworth) all year round

If you plan to leave Little Forest Folk, reduce the number of days or change the days that your child attends, you will need to give 12 weeks written notice.

Sessional day children, term time only

If you plan to leave Little Forest Folk, reduce the number of days or change the days that your child attends, then you will need to give a minimum of one full terms written notice.

For both full and sessional day families, please email office@littleforestfolk.com to give notice.

Terms & Conditions

Our Terms & Conditions are available on our website here. Please ensure that you have thoroughly read through all of our terms and if you have any questions, please do let us know. 

Policies 

All of our nursery policies can be found on our website, along with our privacy policy here.