Fees & Funding.
Our Preschool caters for children aged 3 years to 5 years old. We are open from 7:30am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday, operating within NSW school terms, (40 weeks of the year) and closed on NSW public holidays.
If you nominate Ocean Shores Preschool to recieve Start Strong funding for your child, fees for 2026 are $10.00 per day = $250.00 per term, plus a one off annual bond of $100.00. Fees can be paid by the term or in a lump sum. Please note childcare subsidies and rebates do not apply to preschool.
Please be aware preschool closes at 3:00pm and in accordance with National Regulations and licensing, we are not permitted to have children in the centre after this time. The fee is $15 per child for every 15 minutes or part thereof. The late fee is strictly adhered to, as two staff members are required to remain at preschool until all children are collected.
If we are unable to contact either the parent or person nominated on the enrolment form to arrange collection of the child/ren within an hour of preschool closing, we will need to contact the Department and arrange for the police to take responsibility of your child.
During the enrolment process we consider priority of access as directed by the Department of Education:
Children who are at least 4 years old on or before 31 July in that preschool year and not enrolled or registered at a school
Children who are at least 3 years old on or before 31 July in that preschool year and are:
Children from low-income families
Children with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background
Children with a disability or additional needschildren with English language needs
Children who are at risk of significant harm (from a child protection perspective).
There is no order of priority assigned to the list of points above. Services must give priority to the groups outlined above before any other groups, including 3-year-olds not eligible for equity loading.
Provisions relating to priority of access are intended to assist services with making enrolment decisions in a way that seeks to allocate places to those in the greatest need. However, the particular community needs of the preschool will also be relevant. The department encourages services to maximise the number of children enrolled for 600 hours. Services should therefore consider the hours children are enrolled at other funded services when making enrolment decisions.