For Eligible Working Families
We were delighted to share news of the planned expansion of childcare funding for children of eligible working families in recent months. And now, the latest stage of that free childcare expansion is virtually here! It means that eligible children aged from 9 months to 4 years will be able to access 1140 hours per year of FREE* childcare. The final expansion will be the first time that children aged 9 months to 2 years will be included in the eligible group. It will be available from the 1st of September 2025, and, at the time of writing, that’s just around the corner.
Even closer, though, is the application deadline! Eligible working families have until August 31 to apply for funding for the term starting in September. If you intend to apply but miss the deadline, you will miss out on childcare funding for the whole of that term. Today’s guide explains everything you need to know if you’re an eligible working family and are considering applying for a funded nursery place for your child for this September. The same rules apply whether you are applying to Little Acorns Nursery, Hindley Green, or elsewhere.
Apply by 31st August 2025
to Get Your Childcare Funding Code for September
Childcare providers require a special code from successful applicants in order to provide Government-funded childcare. Without the code, the childcare cannot be provided for free. Families would then need to either pay for their childcare or apply for a subsequent term. Later terms also have their own deadlines, and the same kind of rules apply in each case. From the standpoint of the funding scheme for eligible working families, terms begin on the 1st of the month for September, January, and April. The funding application deadline in each case is the last day of the preceding month. So, for September funding, the application deadline is the 31st of August 2025. For the January term, it’s the 31st of December. Lastly, for the April term, the application deadline is the 31st of March.
Childcare providers require a valid funding code no later than the very start of the term in order to provide the free childcare hours during that term.
The Key Eligibility Factors
Our existing guide explains the key rules for eligibility for childcare funding for working families. The two key rules, though, are that the child’s parent(s) — or the parent and their partner if they have one — must each earn:
- No more than £100,000 per annum for the current tax year;
- No less than the equivalent of 16 hours per week at the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage during the next 3 months.
Click the bold, green link above for much more detail.
How to Quickly Check Your Eligibility
It’s easy to check whether you’re eligible for the childcare funding for working families; simply enter a few details, and this eligibility tool will then check your eligibility for you.
Apply for the Childcare Funding NOW!
As we said above, time is of the essence if you are eligible and would like your child to begin using the free childcare hours from the start of the September term. To apply for the funded hours, you’ll first need a ‘Childcare Account’ on the Gov.uk website if you don’t already have one. Then, you’ll need to enter a few details. Learn more and begin your childcare funding application here.
Remember: you need to apply no later than the 31st of August 2025 if you would like your child to start using their free childcare hours from the beginning of September.
After applying online, most applicants will discover right away whether their application has been approved. However, in some circumstances, it can take as long as a week¹. It’s therefore all the more important to apply as early as you can, so long as your child is at least 23 weeks old when you apply.
1. (Contact the Childcare Service helpline on 0300 123 4097 between 8 am and 6 pm on any working weekday if you have not received your application decision within a week. Call charges may apply.)
Give Your Childcare Provider the All-Important Code
If your application has been approved, you will receive an email confirming that your funding code is available via your Childcare Account. Log in to the account to get this. Give the code to your childcare provider without delay, along with your National Insurance (N.I.) number and the date of birth of your child.
What You’ll Get
If your funding application is successful, your child will be entitled to receive 1140 hours of free childcare each year that they remain eligible. The government funding will be paid directly to your child’s childcare provider — so long, of course, as you/your child remain eligible. Eligibility will need to be reconfirmed via your Childcare Account, on time, every 3 months in order for childcare codes to be valid.
“Eligibility will need to be reconfirmed via your Childcare Account, on time, every 3 months.”
Stretching Funded Childcare Provision
Traditionally, the 1140 childcare hours equate to 30 hours of free childcare per week taken over 38 weeks of the year, with the 38 weeks usually aligning with typical school term-time weeks for your area. However, some childcare providers allow families to ‘stretch’ the free childcare hours over more weeks of the year. This is done simply by using fewer than 30 hours each week, so they can be used over more weeks of the year.
If you are thinking of applying for a nursery place at Little Acorns Nursery and would like to stretch your funded childcare hours, please let us know and we’ll endeavour to accommodate you whenever possible.
Good luck with your application! If you are applying for a nursery place at Little Acorns Nursery in Hindley Green, we look forward to welcoming you and your child to the Little Acorns family very soon!
A Weekday Childcare Service in Hindley Green, Near Wigan
Nursery Places for Babies, Toddlers, & Children Under Five
We hope you found the information above useful and look forward to welcoming new families to our Hindley Green nursery and preschool in the very near future. Whether you are privately funding your childcare or are eligible for government childcare funding, we’d love to welcome you and your child aboard. Why not come and see us — bring your child along! It’s a lovely home-from-home environment with great facilities and a fabulous team that will nurture every child. We’ll really bring out the best in each child and help prepare them well for their onward journey as they head towards school age.
Get in touch with Little Acorns Nursery today. We’ll be delighted to show you and your child around, see how they fit in, and answer any questions that you may have:
As a high-quality nursery located in Hindley Green, we may also suit local families in Bickershaw, Leigh, Atherton, Westhoughton, Ince-in-Makerfield, Platt Bridge, Tyldesley, Bolton and Greater Manchester.
* Please note: Government-funded childcare, including free hours for children of eligible working families, does not usually cover extras including the cost of outings, meals, consumables and any additional childcare hours over and above the funded hours.
Since September 2024, the number of free childcare hours available for eligible children aged 9 months to 2 years (inclusive) is 570 per year. This is usually taken as 15 hours per week over 38 term-time weeks of the year*. In further good news, the allocation is set to double to 1140 hours per year from September 2025, thereby aligning with what eligible 3 and 4-year-olds are already entitled to (see below).
Meanwhile, a total of 1140 hours of free childcare is currently available for eligible children aged 3 and 4 each year. This is usually taken as 30 hours per week over 38 term-time weeks of the year*.
Whether your child is funded by family or via one of the 
One of the most widely accepted truths among professionals involved in ‘early years’ education is that play is incredibly important to children. That’s not just because it comes naturally to them and is fun; play is the key tool through which children learn about themselves, each other, and the world around them. Indeed, the act of playing benefits children in a wide array of profoundly beneficial ways, including socially, mentally, physically, and emotionally. With that in mind, today’s post highlights some of the many benefits of play to children, particularly in their early years. So, if you have a child under five, take a look and you’ll soon see why encouraging your little one to play in a variety of ways will bring out the very best in them and help set them up for life.
One of the most obvious things about children’s play is that often it gets them exerting themselves physically, as they run, climb, jump, make, create, and construct. Such activities help them to master gross and fine motor skills, balance, movement, and coordination. All such skills are enhanced significantly through play and are a fundamental building block of children’s development.
Right from an early age, the act of playing helps in the development of young minds and even contributes to the rapid growth of new connections in the brain. This is true even for babies, whose key tool to learn about the world is through play, as they explore with their senses as well as by reaching out to grasp toys and objects around them.
Whether playing with peers or with parents, the need to gradually master communication and language is imperative. Play helps that to happen in the most natural of ways. All the time they’re playing, children are naturally communicating, picking up new vocabulary, learning new phrases, getting to grips with grammar, and so on. Play is indeed a wonderful facilitator of communication and language.
Playing is an integral part of every happy childhood. It’s fun and, put simply, makes children happy. That’s wonderful for children’s emotional and spiritual well-being and the importance of that cannot be overstated.
As we have seen in this article, play benefits children in a completely holistic way. Play enhances their lives through a multitude of benefits that include improved skills and abilities, a deeper understanding of the world and society, solid friendships and the myriad of opportunities that all of that will bring. Play also fosters a deeper love of learning, because play makes learning enjoyable. Indeed, through play, children explore, discover, and learn instinctively — with zero ‘friction’. As such, play should be at the very core of every child’s learning and development journey.
With free tutorials available on YouTube and inexpensive instruments available in charity shops, phone apps and online marketplaces, there has never been a better time for children to start learning a musical instrument. It’s something for every parent to consider because such a pastime will benefit their child in an incredible variety of ways. Not only will they learn a new skill that will stay with them for life, but their lives will be enriched in many additional ways too. So, today, we take a look at the often profound benefits of learning a musical instrument, especially for young children. We’ll start with the three most obvious benefits before coming to many others that may surprise you.
Playing all these notes in a certain order, sometimes in isolation and at other times as chords and progressions, will do wonders for a child’s coordination and fine motor skills. Although perhaps tricky at first, with practice and ‘muscle memory’, children’s ability to master the playing of musical sequences, chords, melodies and rhythms will gradually become easier and easier. Before long, it’ll become second nature to them.
In a similar way, children who learn a musical instrument will usually, of course, also be learning to read printed music. While this comes in different forms, it all encourages children to concentrate on the reading process. Specifically, they’re learning to read from left to right, to analyse the printed music detail and to make sense of it. It’s another great workout for the brain, and we’ll say more about that next.
Playing a musical instrument often goes hand-in-hand with collaboration. Whether it’s forming a band, taking part in a school orchestra, writing songs with friends or simply jamming out together, children of all ages will naturally play together given the opportunity. As such, it’s a natural socialiser and one that brings children of different ages together, with new friendships being formed through a common interest. That is a very healthy thing. It also teaches children a wide variety of social skills including communication (e.g. speaking and listening at appropriate times), collaboration, being mindful of the needs of others, waiting your turn and so on.
Music itself is also a great antidote to stress and other emotions. Giving children the tools to appreciate music — and even involve themselves in it — will help with their mental well-being as it can calm them when they’re stressed, relax them when they’re tired or even give them an energy boost when they need to get active. Ask any runner! All they need is the right piece of music and half the mental battle is already complete.
With all these benefits, it’s highly worthwhile for children to start learning a musical instrument as young as possible. It’s easy to start them, for example with simple instruments like drums, triangles, and tambourines initially. With these simple instruments, very young children can learn to keep time to music or a beat a rhythm demonstrated by adults. They can then progress to more advanced instruments such as recorders, keyboards, and stringed instruments. They have to start somewhere, though, but it’s never too early to start! Mozart was just 3 when he began to learn piano playing. By 5 he had composed a whole concerto! Who knows; perhaps your child could be a star in the making!
Some may be surprised to learn that nurseries/pre-schools like Little Acorns are not simply “childcare services”. We’re way more than just a crèche, playgroup or a group of nannies or childminders. In reality, our services extend way beyond simply looking after children while parents go to work, although of course we do that too. The truth is that we benefit little ones and their families in a whole range of additional, often profound, ways and that’s what we look at today.
First of all, a Key Person will be allocated to your child on Day 1 when they start at the nursery. The Key Person is a childcare professional that will look out for the child’s wellbeing in all manner of different ways. One of the most important is in the monitoring of the little one’s progress in terms of learning and development. From the day they help to settle the child into the nursery to the day they leave for school, the child’s Key Person will be there to ensure that all the child’s individual needs are being met and that they are fulfilling their fullest potential in every area. Part of that will be the oversight of the bespoke early years education programme, which we’ll come to next.
At Little Acorns Nursery, a bespoke early years learning and development programme will be designed and implemented to suit the strengths and any challenges for each individual child. This is orchestrated by the child’s Key Person and nursery staff and, where needed, through cooperation with any external professionals, e.g. for children that have any special educational or developmental needs. The learning and development programme is tailored to them and them only. Using this approach bolsters the child’s stronger areas, so they can be further strengthened, and addresses any weaker areas that may require extra focus. It is also adapted as time goes by, as progress is made by the child. In this way, every child gets to achieve personal bests and optimal outcomes in every area of their learning and development.
All of this nurturing, education and facilitation of their personal development does one other crucial thing too; it sets them up well for when they leave us around the age of five to start at primary school. By giving them the skills and tools they will need in every area, they are in a better position to absolutely thrive once they start school, right from day one. Indeed, many studies have shown that children who receive a good early years education go on to be higher achievers both at school and in their working lives. That’s gold dust, right there. Let’s take a closer look …
‘Hygge’, pronounced ‘Hue-gah’, is another exciting initiative happening at Little Acorns Nursery in Hindley Green. If you’ve not heard of it, rest assured that it’s something that children will absolutely love and will benefit them in many ways. It’s also something that we’ll be pioneering in the area, so you may not find it in other nurseries and pre-schools around Wigan right now.
Everything at Little Acorns Nursery is there for a reason. It’s all been carefully brainstormed, pre-planned and implemented with utmost care. Whether it’s the introduction of Hygge, the addition of a new piece of equipment, or the purchasing of a specific toy or learning device, everything at Little Acorns has a purpose and is there to benefit the children.
Parents of children at Little Acorns Nursery also give us great feedback about the wonderful childcare provision at the setting. Browse the site for full examples of parent feedback received (it’s scattered around the site) but, to give you a taster, comments include, “My girls absolutely adore this nursery but most of all they adore the staff”, “thank-you for the bottom of my heart for what you have done for my girls”, “I couldn’t recommend this nursery enough, they care and love the children like their own and I couldn’t of ever felt more comfortable leaving my children with a nicer set of girls.”, “I would not hesitate to recommend this nursery to anyone!”, “You should all be very proud of the work you do. It really means so much to us every time we see those small steps forward and we appreciate it.”, and “If I ever had any more children, without a doubt they will be coming to this nursery even if I moved 500 miles away!”. 
Starting nursery or pre-school is a real milestone for children and parents alike. As well as being exciting, though, transitioning to nursery or pre-school can be daunting for the little ones. The researching of childcare settings, checking Ofsted reports and appraising recommendations from friends is all very well, but that’s only the first step. The transition will be smoother for the children themselves if a few golden rules are followed. That’s precisely where today’s guide comes in, with our 20 Ways to Prepare Under-5s for Nursery. Take a look.
Arrange a visit of your chosen or short-listed nurseries/pre-schools. Good settings (like Little Acorns Nursery) will be happy to give you and your child a guided tour. It’s best to go during an actual session, so that you can both see the setting in action on a standard day. Bear in mind that it can also be a chance for your child to become more familiar with the setting. If they later go on to start at the nursery, they will then already be aware of what the rooms look like, where the toilets are, who their carers are, and so on. Show them the play areas inside and out and let them see the other children having fun.
There are several things you can also do around preparing your child for eating at nursery/pre-school. For starters, get your little one used to eating in a group of other children — perhaps with friends or related children at first. Also practise cutlery skills with your child, so they’re more able to eat independently when they start.
Pre-joining visits and settling-in sessions are a great way for children to make friends at the setting, but parents can also orchestrate this outside of the nursery or pre-school. For example, by finding out which friends and neighbours send their children to the setting, they can then suggest some play dates with those children. Little ones will then see one or more friendly little faces welcoming them, right from the outset, once they start at the setting. It’s a good opportunity for children to learn the art of socialising. It’s also good for parents to network in this way, so they can compare notes and perhaps pool information they might otherwise have missed.
Whether your child is potty/toilet trained or still in nappies, teach them to help themselves in this type of area. If they are not yet toilet trained and are ready for it, begin to teach them. It’ll stand them in better stead once they start at nursery/pre-school. If they are newly toilet trained, though, reinforce that accidents do happen and that the childcare staff are used to it and will help change them if so.
A little independence will go a long way for them once children start at nursery or pre-school. Personal hygiene and toilet training is just one of many things they can help themselves with if they’re shown how.
Childcare providers are more than just babysitters or a crèche. Settings like Little Acorn Nursery and many others offer a full early years education too. It’s very high quality, covering pretty much every aspect of early years learning and development and the all-important 
In the month or weeks leading up to your child’s start date, it’s a great idea to try to mimic the timings at the nursery, so that the routine is pre-embedded. So, try to get them used to getting up and getting dressed etc. at the same time as the nursery and they can even have a restful nap at the same time as nap sessions at the setting. An appropriate bedtime routine is also important, so that your child is energised and not tired once they begin at the nursery.
Ensure that you are familiar with the pick-up and drop-off times as well as the nursery’s security arrangements should someone else be picking your child up instead of you.
When the big day arrives for your child, don’t let on if you’re anxious or sad otherwise your child may pick up on it and become upset. So, keep it casual and don’t make a fuss when you drop them off for the first time. Staff and any friends they’ve previously made as part of your planning above are sure to welcome them. Chances are, they’ll run off into the nursery with a friend and have great fun right away anyway!
Parents* of under-fives may have heard nurseries, pre-schools, childcare professionals and other parents referring to “the EYFS”. However, what is it, and how does it affect your children? Well, 
For early years practitioners in England, following the EYFS framework is not optional. It is actually enshrined in law in England, via Section 39 of the Childcare Act 2006, so is an important and binding entity. (Other parts of the UK have similar equivalents).
Ensuring high levels of safeguarding, welfare and happiness for every child at an early years setting;
Communication and Language;
As they work towards their individual goals, assessments will be made, for each child, on a continuous basis. By assessing the children, the learning and development programme and the goals themselves can be tailored and fine-tuned along the way, as required. This will optimise each child’s progress and achievements.
Ensure those who have access to children are suitable, safe, pre-vetted people;
