Glossary

A nanny is a paid childcare provider that does not live with the family.

The national curriculum is taught in most primary and secondary schools throughout the UK. It is implemented by the department of education to ensure conformity on standards of education, subjects and content being taught throughout the UK. The national curriculum in England was introduced in 1988 under the education reform act.

A national offer day is the date when the local authority informs parents if their child’s admission application for a primary or secondary school place has been successful or has been refused. Your local authority will inform you by letter and/or email of an offer for a primary school place on the 16th April after your application and on 1st March for a secondary school place.

An individual’s passport will show their nationality. Nationality refers to the country where you legally belong. You can acquire a nationality by birth, adoption, marriage or through the nationality of your parents. EXAMPLE – If you have a British passport then you are a legal national/citizen of the county of the United Kingdom.

Natural conception is when the process of the sperm fertilising the egg happens naturally in the human body after sperm has been released into the vagina through intercourse or any other means.

This is the failure to look after a child’s needs properly. Not providing them with food, shelter, clothing, medical care, health care, and not looking after their mental, emotional and physical needs.

The net capacity of a school is the total number of students a school can enrol to study at the school .

This is the term used to describe the fact that it may be better to NOT make a court order than to make one with regards to child arrangements.

This is when one party in the proceedings has not provided the information the court has asked for.

An injunction against a named person to stop them threatening violence against you and your children and to prevent them from coming to and near your home.

This is the parent that does not live with the child, the child spends less than 50% of their time with this parent and/or this parent is not responsible for the day to day care of the child.

The words non-binary are used to refer to individuals who do not class themselves as either male or female. A non-binary individual can feel they have both male and female elements to their being. Their gender falls outside the traditional genders male and female. Other words for a non-binary individual are gender variant, gender queer, gender expansive.

A non-resident parent is the parent that moves out of the family home and starts to live elsewhere. They do not live with the child. Another name for a non-resident parent is non-custodial parent or absent parent.

This is a document sent by the court to an individual informing them that their ex-partner has started proceedings.