Two Moors Primary School: Proposal to change the age range

Consultation on a proposal to extend the age range from 3-11 to 2-11 years of age

If you need this document in a different format or language, please contact Devon County Council’s School Consultation Team on 01392 382057 or via email: schoolconsultations@devon.gov.uk

Proposal

Two Moors Primary School’s Governing Body is consulting on a proposal to extend the age range of the school from 3-11 to 2-11 years of age from 3 November 2025.

The school has been working in partnership with Devon County Council (DCC) to bring this proposal forward and DCC is supportive of the proposed change to the age range.

Background

Two Moors Primary School currently has a nursery offering provision for children aged 3 and 4. The school, with DCC’s support, is proposing to extend the age range of the school to 2-11 years of age so that initially up to 5 places for 2 year olds can also be offered. There will be no reduction in the number of places for 3 and 4 year olds as a result of this proposal. The provision will be term time only. There is demand in the area for additional provision and in light of the increase to early years entitlements for working families from September 2025 when the funding increases from 15 to 30 hours a week, there is a projected increase in the demand for two year-old places.

We envisage that this increase in provision will provide valuable support to the community and ensure children have an excellent start to their school journey.

Capital and Planning

By extending the age range of the school to 2-11 all children attending the nursery will be on the school’s roll. This proposal will not affect the Published Admission Number (PAN) for the school, nor the capacity for school aged children. In the longer term, if this proposal is approved, it is planned to enhance and expand the nursery environment and a capital bid may be made to the Department for Education, as part of their future funding rounds for School Based Nursery capital funding, to improve and enlarge the nursery provision.

Benefits of the proposal

Through expanding the nursery provision offer to 2-year-olds, the school will be able to establish the strongest links possible with families, working to support them from a younger age. Two Moors Primary is an Ofsted Good school. Ofsted has identified that in the early years, staff instil their high expectations quickly. This ensures that children get off to a strong start. This proposal, if approved, will offer high quality, flexible provision and a wider choice of provision types for parents. Children will be supported to develop the skills ready to start in the reception class. Being able to offer places from a younger age will provide greater consistency and continuity for children before starting at school and enable staff to make a more significant impact through earlier identification of their needs. Parents will still need to make a separate application to Devon County Council for a place in the reception class.

Process and Decision-making

The Government has recently simplified the process for a maintained school to extend the age range to create school-based nursery provision. The Government has made this change to support their commitment to create or expand school based nurseries in light of the increased entitlements to early years.

Two Moors Primary School is a Local Authority maintained Foundation School. The process to establish a school-based nursery through the extension of the school age range includes a period of consultation followed by a decision at a Full Governing Body meeting. The consultation period will run from 8 September to 6 October 2025. Following the end of the consultation period, the full Governing Body will meet to consider all the responses to the consultation and decide whether or not to extend the age range of the school from 3-11 to 2-11 years of age.

Indicative Timescale

Assuming there is agreement to each stage of the consultative process, an indicative timeline is detailed below.

1. Consultation from 8 September to 6 October 2025.

2. Mid-October – meeting of the school’s Full Governing Body to consider the consultation responses and make a decision on whether or not to approve the proposal.

3. Proposed implementation: 3 November 2025.

Admission to the Nursery

Admission to the nursery provision will be managed by the Governing Body and the school is required to follow the Devon County Council Nursery Admissions Policy.

Responding to the consultation

Please reply by 6 October 2025 to either:

Email: admin@twomoors.devon.sch.uk Please mark your email ‘Nursery Consultation’.
Or by writing to: Two Moors Primary School, Nursery Consultation, Cowleymoor Road, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 6HH.

All responses to the consultation will be fully considered by the school’s leadership team and governors of Two Moors Primary but we will not send individual responses to any specific points made.

Please see the school’s Privacy Notice explaining how the school processes personal data via: https://twomoors.devon.sch.uk/key-information/policies/