Consultation on a proposal to extend the school age range from 4-11 to 2-11 years of age

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Proposal

Instow Community Primary and Pre-School’s Governing Body is consulting on a proposal to extend the age range of the school from 4-11 to 2-11 years of age from 1 December 2026.

Background

Instow Primary School currently has an age range of 4-11 years of age with a Pre-School for 3 and 4 year olds. The Pre-School provision is currently managed separately from the school as an extended service.

The simplest and most effective way for the school to manage the early years provision will be to extend the age range of the school to 2-11 years of age so that the early years provision will become part of the school rather than being run as a separate extended service. The age range is proposed to be extended to 2-11 as the Pre-School currently admits ‘rising 3 year olds’ who are 2 years of age.

If the age range is extended, there will be no difference in the practical day-to-day arrangements for children and families. If the proposal is approved, all children in the nursery provision would be on the role, or admissions register, of the school. Children and families will experience very little change to the service they currently receive. There will be no change to staffing arrangements. There will be no change to the number of early years places offered. The financial and administrative arrangements of the 2-4 year old provision will be easier to manage through the extension of the age range of the school.

Children whose parents meet the free school meal eligibility criteria and attend for the whole day will be entitled to a free school meal. There is no lower age limit. Parents will also be able to purchase a school meal for nursery children.

Capital and Planning

This proposal will not affect the Published Admission Number (PAN) for the school, nor the capacity for school aged children. 

Parents will still need to make a separate application though 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.

Instow Primary School is a Local Authority maintained ‘Foundation Trust’ 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 2 October 2026 to 6 November 2026. Following the end of the consultation period, the full Governing Body will meet to consider all the responses to the consultation and make a decision as to whether or not to extend the age range of the school from 4-11 to 2-11 years of age.

Indicative Timescale

An indicative timeline is detailed below.

• Consultation from 2 October 2026 to 6 November 2026.

• Meeting of the Full Governing Body to consider the consultation responses and make a decision on whether or not to approve the proposal: 23 November 2026.

• Proposed implementation, if proposal is approved: 1 December 2026.

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 November 2026 to either:

Email: admin@instowcps.co.uk

Please mark your email ‘Nursery Consultation’.

Or by writing to: Instow Community Primary School and Pre-School, Nursery Consultation, Rectory Lane, Instow, Bideford, Devon, EX39 4LU

All responses to the consultation will be fully considered by the school’s leadership team and governors of Instow Primary School 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: https://www.instowcps.co.uk/key-information/gdpr-information