Consultation to make a significant change to a characteristic at Great Horwood Church of England School

Background 

Following discussion, trustees of the Oxford Diocesan Bucks Schools Trust (ODBST) as the admission authority for the school, and the local governing body (LGB) are consulting to make a significant change to an open academy characteristic at Great Horwood Church of England School.  

Proposal 

In line with the DFE guidance ‘Making significant changes to an open academy’ October 2024 we are proposing to lower the age range for our nursery pupils from three years old to two years old.   

Consultation 

The trustees from ODBST and governors at Great Horwood School are consulting with the following stakeholders: 

• Buckinghamshire Council  

• The trustees for Great Horwood School 

• Oxford Diocese Board of Education 

• Parents of the children who attend Great Horwood Church of England School 

• Primary, secondary and special schools in the area 

• Parents in the local area 

This consultation will run for 4 weeks from Monday 18 November 2024 until Monday 16 December 2024. 

Comments

If you wish to make any comments regarding the consultation and proposal, please send them to this email address office@ghw.odbst.org marked for the attention of the Headteacher, Paula Shaw. Responses to be received at the latest by 12.00pm on Monday 16th December 2024.  

Further information regarding the proposal

The Vision for our Seedlings Nursery at Great Horwood School 

Our vision is to extend Great Horwood School's current nursery provision by lowering the age range from 3 years to 2 years. This would ensure that local children from the village, and in our catchment area, have quality nursery provision from the age of two years old. We would be providing spaces for those with siblings at the school already or those living in Great Horwood and the nearby surrounding area who intend to become pupils at the school. Should there be a demand in the future we would be excited to expand the provision to provide nursery places and childcare during the school holidays. 

Historical context 

Great Horwood school has taken 3 years olds into the Nursery for a number of years.  Since covid lockdown restrictions were lifted there has been a steady increase in the number of pupils into the reception class and the number of pupils requiring nursery places has increased. A number of our current parents have asked if we are able to take two year olds into the nursery.

Q&A’s 

Why are we proposing to lower the starting age at the school?  

We believe that there is a local need for more nursery places for two-year-olds. We would offer between 5-15 places for Nursery children age 2 and between 8-24 places for 3-4 year olds. The initial plan is to offer 5 places for the siblings at the school from Easter 2025. This would have a positive impact on the school community offering excellent early years education and providing through education until the age of 11.

Why are we consulting now? 

We are consulting on lowering the age to 2 now so that, should there be sufficient demand, we can provide places for local children. This is in line with Government requirements to increase nursery provision for two-year-olds. We are keen to understand the views of our local community on this proposal and so, as per best practice recommended by the Department of Education (DfE), we have incorporated a 4-week period of consultation into the decision-making process. The consultation will run from Monday 18 November 2024 until Monday 16 December. 

Will the proposal have any impact on admission to the school’s reception class?  

No. Admission arrangements to the reception class at Great Horwood School will remain unchanged and will not be affected by admission to nursery at 2 years old.  There will be no changes to our published admissions number (PAN) for reception or Year 3. 

Do the trust, governors and staff and governors support the proposal?  

Yes, there is positive support for the proposal from the trust and governors. They believe it would benefit current and future pupils and the local community.  Staff have been asked for their thoughts and comments regarding the proposal prior to this consultation and their views are being taken into account as part of the consultation process.

Will the proposal disrupt the education of pupils currently at the school?  

There will be no major disruption for current pupils as we can home up to 5 additional nursery pupils within our current nursery provision.

How many places in the nursery will there be?

If the proposal was agreed and given the go ahead then we would offer 5 places for two year olds initially and 8 places for three year olds. We hope to be able to offer this for the summer term 2025. This would gradually increase from September 2025 to 10 two year old places and 16 three & four year old places. In future years we aim to increase this up to 35 Nursery places of 2-4 year olds if there was sufficient demand.

What hours and days would the nursery provide? 

The 2-year-old provision would initially provide 15 hours during the current school day either 8.45-11.45am or 12.15-3.15pm. Additional hours could be provided with 30 hours eligibility. An additional lunchtime club form 11.45-12.15pm would be available at an additional cost for those parents who wish to make use of this service. 30 hours provision could also be provided from 8.45-2.45pm. We believe that this flexibility will support parents manage work and family life.

Will you offer wrap around care for all nursery pupils?

We currently offer nursery wrap around care from 7.40-5.30pm Monday, Thursday and Friday and 7.40-6.00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday. This could be extended to 6.00pm every day if there was sufficient demand. Wrap around care during the holidays would not be offered initially for 2024-2025 but could be offered in future years during the school holidays if there was sufficient demand for places. 

Is funding available? 

There is funding available from the school based Nursery Capital Grant to support refurbishment of un-used buildings currently on school sites. We are submitting a bid for this funding and if successful for this grant we would refurbish the Victorian school building to provide a nursery that has the capacity to extend and grow should there be sufficient demand in the future.

Will adaptations need to be made to the building? 

There are no adaptations to be made in the main school and current Nursery provision. However, to extend and grow to provide full nursery and EYFS provision from 7.40-6.00pm daily would require an upgrade to the Victorian school building. This work would not impact on the current pupils except for a few minor adjustments when coming into or out of school. 

Will there be extra traffic and how will you reduce the impact?  

It is possible that there may be a slight increase in traffic, but we envisage that the majority of pupils will be local and could walk to Nursery or currently have siblings in the school so highly likely that they would already be travelling to the school. There is an opportunity to increase parking on school site in the future if required. The school has a full capacity of over 155 pupils so opening the nursery would still be less pupils than the school has a full capacity.