Information for the registration of children aged 3 years - school session 2024/2025

All children who will be 3 years of age before 1 March 2025 are entitled to a nursery place during school session August 2024 until June 2025, some before depending on birth date and availability of places.

The funding eligibility dates for school session 2024/2025 are:

  • Children who will be 3 years of age between 1st March 2024 and 19th August 2024 may start nursery from 20th August 2024.
  • Children who will be 3 years of age between 20th August 2024 and 28th February 2025 can start nursery from the month after their 3rd birthday.
  • The Cross Boundary Protocol will apply to parents applying for a nursery place to West Dunbartonshire Council from another Local Authority. This applies to Funded Partner Providers only.

If your child will be eligible for a nursery placement in session 2024/2025 you should complete and submit your first choice council nursery establishment or partner provider nursery who provides a service for the council no later than 31st March 2024.

Letters notifying parents/carers of nursery placement decisions will be issued in May.

For children residing within West Dunbartonshire places will be allocated in accordance with the following priority criteria:

  • Priority 1 - Child Protection, Prevention, Looked After and Complex Additional Support Needs.
  • Priority 2 - Any child born August to February, whose parents have exercised the right to defer entry to primary school.
  • Priority 3 - Pre-school children within their allocated community as indicated by address
  • Priority 4 - Ante pre-school children within their allocated community as indicated by address
  • Priority 5 - Admission will be given to children resident out with West Dunbartonshire whose parents make a request for this. (Private Partner Provider only).

All children will be entitled to at least 4 terms of early learning and childcare with some older children being entitled to a maximum of 6 terms. All services offering statutory early years and childcare places will follow the council procedures/policy to ensure uniformity in the allocations process across the authority.

The admissions process will take place each year for the allocation of nursery places for the following academic year. Where an establishment has more applications than capacity a laid down procedure will be followed for balloting of places.

The nursery IT system (NAMS) will be used to facilitate the allocation of nursery places.

For further information on early learning and childcare provision including partner providers visit the ELC for 3 and 4 year olds page.

Please visit the Frequently Asked Questions Admissions page.

Eligible 2 Year Olds

Early Learning & Childcare places are available for eligible 2 year olds. To check the criteria for eligibility and to find out how to apply visit the ELC for 2 year olds page.

Cross Boundary Applications

Parents and carers can ask a funded provider working in partnership with any named local authority to make a request to the host authority for cross boundary funding.

A cross boundary admissions panel meets very May to review funding requests submitted to host authorities before the end of February for the new session beginning in August. Any requests submitted after this date will be considered by individual authorities, throughout the year, on an individual basis.

Armed Forces Families

Children from armed forces families can have additional support needs related to moving into a new education setting and admission into school dates may differ across the UK. To support the needs of individual children we will be flexible in tailoring admission decisions to the best interest of children and in line with latest Scottish Government Guidance.

Apply

You can now apply online for a nursery place using the form below.

Apply for a Nursery place

Find out more information on early learning and childcare provision including partner providers and entitlement to early learning and childcare for 3 to 4 year olds.