Establishment of a Nursery at D’Eyncourt Primary School

The Proposal:

Establishment of a nursery within D’Eyncourt Primary School.

In order to establish a nursery, it is necessary for the Trust to change the age range for which the school can cater for, from 4-11 to 3-11 years old. This would enable the school to offer nursery provision to children aged 3 and 4 years.

Central Learning Partnership Trust seek to open a 10-place nursery at D’Eyncourt Primary School with effect from September 2024.

Currently, children who join D’Eyncourt Primary School at the age of four, come from a variety of settings within the locality. Under the new proposals, children aged three and upwards would be able to formally attend the school.

The nursery would operate from the existing accommodation on the school site, sharing the space currently used for Reception children.

Rationale:

As a one and a half form entry, D’Eyncourt sits on a popular housing estate within Wednesfield, Wolverhampton with good links to Cannock Road/ M54 junction 1. For many years D’Eyncourt has looked at ways to increase our pupil numbers. As a thriving school and with a recent Ofsted of ‘Good’, D’Eyncourt would now like to provide children from the ages of 3 with the highest-quality teaching and learning along with a stimulating and exciting curriculum that allows children to become life-long learners. Our proven track record of providing positive outcomes for pupils at the end of key stage 2 allows pupils within the local area to benefit from accessing high-quality learning in all areas from a younger age.

Love of learning is at the heart of everything we do at D’Eyncourt Primary. In Early years we believe that high-quality, play-based learning is key to developing successful, confident, happy and resilient learners. Our whole school focus of aiming to be our BEST (Be kind and caring, Excel in learning, Show respect and Take on Challenges) will enable us to begin our journey of creating lifelong learners from a younger age.

At D’Eyncourt Primary School we ensure that we are not only providing an exciting and challenging environment and teaching children fundamental knowledge, but we are giving them opportunities to put that knowledge into practice on their own. We look deeply into the knowledge and experiences children have and attempt to strengthen their skills. We aim to provide an environment that offers challenges and opportunities for children to use and develop common play-based behaviours in a progressive way.

We aim:

• to provide a safe, happy, caring, stimulating and secure environment for our children where everyone feels valued, included and respected
• to engage our children in the highest-quality teaching and learning and to maximise success for all
• to develop a shared vision for the future of D’Eyncourt Primary pupils
• to foster high-quality leadership at all levels
• to work in partnership with other agencies and our communities to promote the welfare of our children
• to work together with parents as partners to improve learning and care
• to reflect on our work and fulfil our learning potential
• to value and empower our children and staff by recognising and celebrating successes and achievements
• to promote well-being and respect
• to develop a culture of ambition and achievement
• to equip our children with skills for learning, life and work, ready to actively grasp and follow their dreams in the future.

Implementation

As we already have a reception class, we are well-versed in delivering the EYFS curriculum and would be able to extend this knowledge and expertise to a nursery group. Our current staff capacity allows for a current D’Eyncourt teacher to lead the nursery group. The teacher has previous experience of working within a nursery and has worked within our EYFS setting for 12 months. Our open-plan reception classrooms allow for an additional 10 pupils to be taught in this space in the first instance with plans being drawn up to create a larger space for additional pupils in the coming years.

Our curriculum has been developed with nursery in mind and with support from our Trust we have developed an enriching curriculum. Within our nursery, we aim to use directed learning and interest-led activities as this can provide a new stimulus, or an opportunity to revisit or further develop learning. These activities will be planned to promote children’s in visual development in each of the areas of the EYFS curriculum. Alongside our play-based learning and following children’s interests we also will deliver a timetable of adult-directed taught sessions. Adult-led activities will provide opportunities for introducing new knowledge, vocabulary and experiences, and for developing and practising skills.

Progress

Throughout the week staff in nursery will use ‘Learning Journals’ as a way of recording evidence of children’s development and progress. We use ‘Smart’ as a way of sharing and planning for children’s learning based on their individual development. This will provide the opportunity for children to continuously develop individual skills and knowledge so that they are prepared for their transition to reception.

Relationships

Establishing positive relationships between teachers, children and parents is crucial for ensuring that children effectively make the transition from their home environment to the nursery classroom. At D’Eyncourt Primary children will be assigned to key members of staff. This gives children opportunities to develop their communication skills and build strong relationships with their teachers. Each week an overview of learning is sent out outlining key events and learning in Nursery. We actively use Class Dojo to communicate with families, sharing notes about children and things happening in school, this will be implemented for our families in nursery too.

Characteristics of Effective Learning

We understand that all children engage with other people and their environment through the characteristics of effective learning. We aim to provide for the characteristics of effective learning by observing how a child is learning and being clear about what we can do and provide in order to support each child to remain an effective and motivated learner.

Outdoor Learning

We have a large outdoor space that has been transformed into a stimulating, thought-provoking and enthralling environment. Children will have access to the outdoor space on a daily basis whatever the weather! We believe that being outdoors supports confidence, physical development and allows opportunities for big-scale play, problem-solving, social interaction and creativity in the company of other children. We operate a ‘Wild Tribe’ curriculum across the school and have developed a nursery curriculum to allow our pupils to experience outdoor learning at its best.

Trust Support

Having experienced staff within Early Years, the expansion of this phase to encompass a nursery would be seamless and working closely with our partner school Woden Primary, we are able to share the resources and expertise of a well established nursery and an ‘Outstanding’ provider.

Consultation:

This is an opportunity for stakeholders to respond to the proposal.

Consultation commences on Thursday 6th June 2024 and runs until Thursday 4th July 2024 You can offer your opinions by completing the online survey. Visit: https://forms.office.com/e/Z5wY8WmcyR

Alternatively please request a copy of the survey from the school office.

Completed paper copies can be handed to school Reception or posted to:

FAO Mrs D Darby
D’Eyncourt Primary School
Mullett Road
Wolverhampton
WV11 1DD

Please note that the deadline for responses is Thursday 4th July 2024. All comments received will help inform a final decision on the proposal.
Should you have any queries regarding the proposal please do not hesitate to contact our school office on 01902 558778