East Markham Primary School: Proposal for alteration of age range

Overview

The proposal is that the age range at East Markham Primary School be lowered to 3 – 11 years from the existing 5 – 11 years. This would enable the school to offer a Foundation 1 Early Years provision

For the past 14 years, a nursery provision has been offered on the school site by an external, committee-run provider, Pippins. They lease an area of the school on the 5 working school days from 7.45am - 6.00pm during term time only. They also offer wraparound care during these hours. There is a high demand for the setting from parents/carers of the school community and there is a daily average of 20 children attending nursery settings. The school Governing Body has now been informed that the Pippins setting will close before the start of the 2022/23 academic year. With the closure of Pippins, there is no other preschool setting in the village of East Markham or smaller local villages.

Opening a school-run nursery class would ensure that the school meets the needs of the local community, families, and children. It would offer provision of an early years education, ensuring a consistent setting and approach to learning for the youngest children, which would support the government’s policy of providing early years education for children through a secure, stimulating and high-quality early years nursery setting.

This would complement existing provision in the Reception class, as local children could attend the nursery and then successfully transition into statutory education at age 4/5. Learning opportunities would be maximised across the early years for children from 3 to 5 years of age. Preschool sessions would be offered to a maximum of 29 places (per half day session), while wraparound care would also be available at school through Breakfast and After School Clubs.

Pupil numbers:

The maximum number of children who will be able to access a place at the nursery will be 29 as per the statutory requirements in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Admissions:

The current admissions arrangements of East Markham Primary School will not be affected by this proposal.

Please note, there will be no pupils displaced by this proposal.

The school governing body has approved this proposal. It carried out a public consultation in which 90% of the 31 responses received agreed that the age range at East Markham Primary School be lowered in order that the school be able to provide its own early years provision.

Children and families of 3- & 4-year-olds will have access to early years childcare and education in their own locality. They will not need to travel to an alternative provider out of the area to access their free entitlement place.

No alteration to existing travel arrangements will be caused by this proposal as it is expected that existing families using current Pippins Pre-School will continue to use the new F1 provision at East Markham Primary School.