Starfish Pre-School

About Us

Starfish Pre-school is part of Rye Community Primary School, which is turn is an Academy within the Aquinas Church of England Education Trust Limited. We provide term time only Early Years Education and consistent care for 2, 3 and 4 year olds. 

Starfish Pre-school provides morning and afternoon sessions of fun and learning through a child centred approach to the Early Year Foundation Stage Curriculum. Working with parents we personalise the care, play and learning opportunities for every child.

The children at Starfish Pre-school have access to the facilities within the main school and thoroughly enjoy visits to our forest school, Balanceability bike sessions and participating in special assemblies and performances.  

Children benefit from high quality teaching which prepares them for their school life and facilitates a seamless transition into Reception. 

Throughout the session children are able to access a range of engaging resources independently whilst being supported by our highly experienced staff.

Here at Starfish Pre-school you can see everyday commitment to enabling children to grow and develop into kind, motivated, creative, curious, resilient little learners.

For an appointment to visit us please call 01797 222 825.     

We offer:

• Excellent links with schools through the Early Years Village and Early Years Hub for Excellence led by our Foundation Stage lead.
• Specialist staff promote early identification and support for children with additional needs.
• Lunches
• Fantastic parent partnership – from home visits, parent consultation evenings, online learning journals, Parent information sessions, communication through Starfish Pre-school Class Dojo page - https://www.classdojo.com/
• Forest School sessions
• Balanceability bike sessions 
• Optional uniform

Opening Hours and School Day

Our Opening Hours are Term Time only between 8:30am - 3:15pm 

Throughout the week, children are also able to participate in Balanceability and Forest School sessions.

Balanceability is an approved learn to cycle programme for young children.

Forest School sessions are run by our two members of Level 3 Forest School trained members of staff. Children are provided with unique learning opportunities that are accessed in the outdoor natural environment.

Fees and EYEE 

Our Fees

2 year olds - £15.30 (3 hours)

3 & 4 year olds - £13.95 (3 hours)

Lunch session - £3.30 (45 mins)

Great News! Starfish Pre-school are able to offer 30 hours of funded placement for your 3-4 year olds, if you are eligible through meeting the Government Criteria, as follows:

• Parents of three and four year olds will need to meet the following criteria in order to be eligible for 30 hours free childcare:
•  They earn or expect to earn the equivalent to 16 hours at National Minimum or Living Wage over the coming three months
• This equates to £120 a week (or c.£6,000 a year) for each parent over 25 years old or £112.80 a week (or c.£5,800 a year) for each parent between 21 and 24 years old and £56 a week for apprentices in their first year
• This applies whether you are in paid employment, self-employed or on zero hours contract
• The parent (and their partner where applicable) should be seeking the free childcare to enable them to work
• Where one or both parents are on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, or if they are on statutory sick leave
• Where one parent meets the income criteria and the other is unable to work because they are disabled, have caring responsibilities or have been assessed as having limited capability to work
• Where a parent is in a ‘start-up period’ (i.e. they are newly self-employed) they do not need to demonstrate that they meet the income criteria for 12 months
• If one or both parents is a non-EEA national, the parent applying must have recourse to public funds  

A parent will not meet the criteria when:

• Either parent has an income of more than £100,000
• If one or both parents is a non-EEA national and the parent applying does not have recourse to public funds                      

Please visit http://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk for more information and to check eligibility.

We also offer 2 year old funding to register for this and for more information please visit
http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/earlyyears

How To Pay Starfish Pre-School Fees 

We use SCOPAY for our Starfish Pre-School online payments of fees. 

SCOPAY allows you pay for your child’s account fees anywhere, anytime using a credit or debit card, Google Pay or Apple Pay.

You can log into your SCOPAY account on the website: www.scopay.com or the SCOPAY app, available to download for free from the App Store and Google Play.

All families have access to SCOPAY; if you have not yet registered, please get in touch with our School Office to request an access code.