Our Early Years Vision

At Waterside we have such a fun and vibrant school where pupils, staff, governors, parents and the school community work extremely hard and have high expectations of one another. We are committed to the highest standards of teaching and learning – achieved through a combination of challenge, support, encouragement and praise – to ensure that all students fulfill their potential.

Within the Waterside Primary Early Years area of school, you will find a welcoming and purposeful environment, with relationships built on mutual respect. Our supportive pastoral systems help pupils to achieve beyond their expectations and develop a strong sense of responsibility for themselves, their peers and the wider world. Our unique early years pupils develop skills for lifelong learning. Achievement and a 'can do' attitude are at the heart of our philosophy; we support this through nurturing pupils’ creativity, encouraging independent thinking and learning and showing that mistakes can be a learning opportunity.

We are a forward-thinking school and EYFS department who is constantly striving for excellence in all that we do. Through teachers and practitioners individual work on current research and developments within education, such as current training and government initiatives like dough disco, we aim to inspire all learners to grow and develop in an ever changing world.

Choosing your child’s school is one of the hardest decisions that parents can make and we want all of our parents to be at ease knowing that their child is happy and having a full and rich curriculum based on mutual respect.There are many questions you will want to ask and we hope that this website will give an insight into the many aspects of school life and will help you to make that decision. Have a look around our site and you will come across some of the information below.

  • On our Homepage you will find a calendar with important dates and links to our whole schools latest newsletters.
  • In our 'Information' section you will find tabs that cover our curriculum, policies and admissions procedures as well as links to other key areas of our school.
  • The 'Search' function at the top of the page allows you to search for specific information using keywords.
  • Our 'Galleries' section has photographs of our most recent events and activities from individual classes.

Our class blogs are updated every week in both Nursery and Reception they will show you every week the inspirational learning that is taking place, how the children are developing and what environment they are learning in. We also give top tips to parents to help with different parts of the curriculum and how we make learning fun! 

Here at Waterside Primary School, we believe that every child deserves the best possible start in life and the support that enables them to achieve their potential. Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and the age of five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.

We each believe here at Waterside Primary that we deliver outstanding education day in and day out, our department has highly skilled teachers and practitioners, who work daily to ensure that every child reaches their full potential and gets the highest standard of education and pastoral care when in and out of school. We aim to work closely with parents and families to ensure that support and guidance is there and in place to support their child further at home. 

Our parents are very important to us as we know from experience that children thrive with good support from school and at home, at Waterside we welcome our parents and are always looking for ways to develop strong and positive links. We carefully monitor all of the children's developments and this is shared with parents frequently. We want our parents as involved as possible in their  child's education so we often ask parents to join us for special events in school and provide parents with ways to inform us of their child's home achievements. 

 

Early Years Admission Process

Our school has an agreed admission number of 60 per year group. For application forms for years 1 to 6, parents are asked to contact the school office in the first instance. The Admissions team at Stoke on Trent City Council should be contacted on 01782 236867/ 233232 or www.stoke.gov.uk/admissions for applications to Nursery and Reception. They can also offer general information and guidance about admissions.

Admissions Policy and Over-subscription Criteria

Waterside follows the Local Authority Admissions Arrangements:

School Admissions Arrangements 2022-23

Where there are more applications for a community or voluntary controlled primary school than there are places available, the Council will use the following priorities, in order, to allocate places:

  1. Children cared for by a local authority and children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order).
  2. Children living in the catchment area of the school who have an older brother or sister attending at the time of admission (or at the linked junior school in the case of infant schools).
  3. Other children living within the catchment area of the school.
  4. Children living outside the catchment area of the school who have an elder brother or sister at the school at the time of admission (or at the linked junior school in the case of infant schools).
  5. Children who live nearest to the school as determined by a straight line measurement from the child’s home address point to the main entrance of the school.

Nursery Admissions

All Nursery children are entitled 15 hours free, and some may be entitled to an additional 15 hours free.  For those who are not entitled to the additional 15 hours, we offer the top-up hours for a fee.

The offers are set out below:

OFFER 1: 15 Hours Free Childcare Only

For pupils who receive 15 hours free childcare only, morning sessions will be available from 8:45 to 11:45.

OFFER 2: 30 Hours Free Childcare

For pupils who receive the additional free 15 hours, we include an additional 25 minutes for lunchtimes. This will be a standard offer for a full time place with hours from 8:45 to 3:10. Lunch is not included and will be charged at £9.50 a week, alternatively children can bring a packed lunch. To find out the full details of your entitlements please use the Childcare Calculator at www.gov.uk/childcare-calculator

OFFER 3: 30 Hours Top-Up Childcare

For parents/carers who do not qualify for the additional 15 hours free childcare, you can pay for a full time place at the rate of £60.00 per week with hours from 8:45 to 3:10. The £60.00 fee will be payable half termly, in advance. Lunch is not included and will be charged at £9.50 a week, alternatively children can bring a packed lunch.

For more information about the criteria 30 hours free childcare eligibility please visit 30 Hours Free Childcare Eligibility

Places to our Nursery are allocated by the Local Authority. Parents are asked to contact Admissions on 01782 236867/233232 or www.stoke.gov.uk/admissions for an admission form to Nursery or Reception.

Where there are more applications for a nursery setting than there are places the following priorities will be used, in order, to allocate places:

  1. Children in the care of the local authority and children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order).
  2. Children living within the catchment who have an elder brother or sister at the school who will still be attending at the time of admission (or at the linked junior school in the case of infant schools).
  3. Other children living within the catchment.
  4. Children living outside the catchment who have an elder brother or sister at the school who will still be attending at the time of admission (or at the linked junior school in the case of infant schools).
  5. Children who live nearest to the school as determined by a straight line measurement from the child’s home address point to the main entrance of the school.

Once the class is full a waiting list based on these criteria will be held until the end of September of that academic year. Attendance at a particular nursery setting will not guarantee admission to a reception class at the same school. As nursery education is not compulsory there is no right of appeal against the refusal of a place. However, every effort will be made to accommodate the wishes of parents.

Nursery Applications

Reception Applications

Guide to Online Admission Applications

Tax-Free Childcare

If you are a working parent with children under 12 (or under 17 for disabled children), you can open an online account to pay for registered childcare. The government will top-up the money you pay into the account. For every £8 you pay in, the government will add an extra £2.00. You can receive up to £2,000.00 per child – that’s up to £500 every three months. If you have a disabled child, you can receive up to£4,000.00 per child – that’s up to £1,000 every three months.

You, and your partner, must each expect to earn (on average) at least £125.00 per week (equal to 16 hours at the National Minimum or Living Wage). If you, or your partner, are on maternity, paternity or adoption leave, or you’re unable to work because you are disabled or have caring responsibilities, you could still be eligible.

If either you, or your partner, expect to earn £100,000.00 or more, you can’t get Tax-Free Childcare. You can’t use Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as childcare vouchers, Universal Credit or Tax Credits.

You can use it with the 15 hours and 30 hours schemes.

Please visit Childcare Choices to check your eligibility.

The following documents are also available, from the Stoke-on-Trent Admissions Team:

Stoke on Trent Nursery Prospectus

Stoke on Trent Primary Prospectus

Stoke on Trent Secondary Prospectus

School Admissions Code

Fair Access Protocol

Admission of Children of UK Service Personnel and other Crown Servants

Reception to Year 2 Appeal Form

Admissions Team Contact details:

Admissions are open Monday to Thursday between 8:45am to 5pm and 8:45am to 4:30pm on Friday.

Floor 2
Civic Centre
Glebe Street
Stoke-on-Trent
ST4 1HH

The Stoke-on-Trent Admissions Team also give advice about applying for free school meals and transport to school. For further information please visit: http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/education/admissions/

EYFS Readiness

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