Views sought to lower the age range at Hunsbury Park Primary School
14 August 2024
Residents are being asked for their views on proposals to lower the age range for Hunsbury Park Primary School, Northampton to include early years children.
Widening the age range from 4-11 years to 2-11 years will enable the school to take over the running of the Early Years provision and Out of School Club, located on site which is being closed due to unforeseen circumstances.
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is working with the school to ask the local community for their views on the proposals through a consultation which will run from Tuesday 13 August to Monday 10 September. Click here to view the proposals and have your say.
Following the consultation period, feedback will be collated at considered by WNC’s cabinet, and it is anticipated that the nursery will re-open from Monday 23 September. This will bridge the gap in provision for 2-11-year-olds in the local area and ensure continuity of service for families and the community.
Hunsbury Park Primary School propose to continue running the previous term time, full day care model, offering flexible patterns to meet the needs of the working demographic. They will operate between 8am and 5:30pm, Monday to Friday and will offer 24 full time equivalent funded early education entitlement (FEEE) places to 2 to 4-year-olds and an out of school club for 4-11 years.
To support a robust handover and to meet staffing requirements, the school will be providing a staged approach by offering pre-school (3-year old's) morning and afternoon sessions in the first academic year (2024/25) and extended full nursery sessions to 2 and 3-year-olds in the second academic year (2025/26).
"Due to exceptional circumstances, we are taking swift action to work with the school to seek the views of local residents to lower the age from 4 to 2 years old at Hunsbury Park Primary School. We want to ensure that local families can continue to access the early years and wrapround provision in the area due to the sudden closure of Campers and that any disruption is absolutely minimised.”Cllr Fiona Baker, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education at WNC
WNC is responsible for ensuring there is a sufficiency of early years places across West Northamptonshire. It is also legally obliged to conduct a period of consultation on this proposal as part of the statutory decision-making process.
Following the public consultation, WNC will collate and review all the responses received. The results will be analysed, and an assessment made on whether to proceed with the proposal. All stakeholder views expressed will be given full consideration prior to any future decisions being made. The report outlining the summary of the consultation responses will be considered by WNC’s cabinet on 17 September, councillors will then decide on the next steps.