Change of Age Range at Newdigate Primary and Nursery School

Overview

This consultation is being undertaken to advise you of proposals concerning Newdigate Primary School, and to invite you to tell us what you think of the proposals. This is part of a statutory consultation process that Warwickshire County Council is managing in partnership with the school’s Governing Body.

The proposed changes are related to changes at national level, with many families now entitled to 30 hours per week of funded early education, instead of the 15 hours per week they were previously entitled to.

Parents are increasingly seeking more flexibility from nursery places, to support them with work commitments. This can be difficult for some schools to manage when nursery places are offered via a maintained nursery class, where there is less scope for flexibility.

This proposal provides an opportunity for the school to re-configure how early years provision is delivered to enable it to meet the needs of local parents.

There will be no material change to the school’s operation – both school and nursery will continue to be governed by the same board and led by the same head teacher and staff.

Why your views matter

Public consultation is in accordance with the statutory guidance produced by the Department for Education whereby ‘LAs can propose a change of age range of 1 year or more for community schools (including the adding or removal of nursery provision) by following the statutory process set out in the regulations’.

These proposals are made under The School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools (England) Regulations 2013.

The proposal is

• To change the age range at Newdigate Primary School from 3–11 to 4–11 from September 2019.
• To run all nursery provision for 2-3 year olds via Community Facility Powers under the direction of the School Governors from September 2019.