PLANS to extend the age range of a Barrow primary school and nursery in light of a government expansion of free childcare have taken a step forward.
Members of the cabinet for Westmorland and Furness Council approved the publication of a statutory notice on proposals to extend the age range of Victoria Infants and Nursery School from its current three to seven-year-olds to two to seven-year-olds.
This will trigger a four-week statutory representation period when all stakeholders will be given a further opportunity to comment on the proposal, the report prepared for the cabinet states.
Within two months of the end of the representation period, the cabinet will be required to make a final decision on the proposal.
Cabinet member for children’s services councillor Janet Battye said: “This I hope is quite simple, it’s a school that wants to do more, and I hope the cabinet approves it.”
According to a report, the school is planning on providing 30, 15-hour places in the two-year-old room. This means that there will be 15 morning sessions, and 15 afternoon sessions created.
The report adds: “There will also be benefits in terms of the offering for three-year-old children at the setting.
“Children will be able to start at the setting sooner in the academic year and the actual capacity of the three- year- old provision will be increased further with the creation of ten full time equivalent places broken down as ten 15-hour places in the morning and ten 15-hour places for the afternoon.”
In March 2023, the government announced an expansion of childcare entitlement to include 15 hours free early education for children aged nine months upwards from September 2024.
From September 2025 all children aged nine months upwards from working families will be able to access 30 hours of free early education.
The report prepared for the meeting says: “The school are confident that there is a pre-existing demand for two-year-old places from the parents of those children who are already attending the school.”
According to the report, the school carried out a consultation to gauge interest and 22 parents responded to express interest in taking up the offer of provision for two-year-olds.
The governing body of the school has also outlined a series of benefits of expanding the age range. These include:
An age range extension will provide opportunities for children to work with school staff from an earlier age to develop their language skills within an educational setting.
There will be the potential for special educational needs or disabilities to be identified as early as possible ensuring children can access appropriate support at an earlier opportunity
A number of private, voluntary and independent settings in the area are currently not providing childcare on Friday afternoons leaving some families with childcare difficulties.
Parents who have other children in the school could potentially take younger siblings to the same place saving time and reducing pollution from travel.
According to the report, the cost of the proposal is ‘minimal’ as the school has capacity within its existing site to accommodate more children.
The cabinet approved moving to the next stage of the process and publishing a statutory notice on September 10 at Dalton Community Centre.
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