Holiday Policy

Most nurseries charge parents for their booked days throughout every week of the year, regardless of whether they are on holiday or not.  We have decided that it is fairer to allow parents a holiday entitlement of four weeks per year, where we will not charge for your booked days during that period.

In order to allow us to plan for absences, we ask parents to give us one calendar month’s notice of taking an unpaid holiday period.

Holiday leave relates to the number of days your child normally attends.  If your child attends full time, then a holiday week will equate to the full five days, or 20 days per year.  If your child attends two days per week, then your holiday entitlement for the year will equate to 8 days per year. Holiday entitlement is worked out pro-rata. So if you start during the year, it is worked out from start date until December. Our holiday year runs January-December.

You may take two weeks of booked leave in the first six months, and two weeks in the second six months of the year.

In order to book holiday please email the nursery manager on michelle.activeplay@hotmail.co.uk.  Putting your request in writing is always preferable in order to avoid any misunderstandings later. You will receive a confirmation               email back to say whether the holiday has been accepted or not and a reason why if not.

We ask parents to note that Activeplay is an all year round nursery, and not a term time only nursery.  We often have parents joining on this understanding but subsequently saying they don’t want to pay for their child to attend during the school vacations, perhaps because they have an older sibling at school.  We are not set up for this pattern of attendance, and we are very open about this.  Our overheads, food provision and our staffing extend throughout the whole year.  If a parent is looking for a term time nursery, we can give advice about which local nurseries or childminders offer this, and we are always happy to do so.  This does not preclude the possibility, however, of using your holiday entitlement during school vacation times – you could take two weeks during the Easter vacation, and the second two weeks at the end of the summer holidays, as an example.  But we do respectfully ask parents not to choose us as an all year round nursery and then expect not to attend for 12 weeks of the year without being charged.

February 2026
By: Jacquelin Curtis
Adopted as the policy of the nursery
By: Jacquelin Curtis Director,
Activeplay Nurseries Ltd