Proposal to change the age range of South Brent Primary School from 4-11 to 0-11 years of age

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Proposal

Our Harbour Schools Partnership is consulting on a proposal to extend the age range of South Brent Primary School from 4-11 to 0-11 years of age from September 2026.

Background and Reasoning

The Government is committed to creating or expanding school-based nurseries across England in line with the increase in early education and childcare entitlements and is currently inviting applications for capital grants to increase early years capacity in schools.

South Brent Primary School has an age range of 4-11 years of age with a PAN of 30 split into seven teaching classes.  Currently, beyond our foundation class, the school has no further Early Years provision.

Due to demand in the local community for wider provision with a greater age range, and in light of the increase to early years entitlements for working families, the school has been in discussions with the Local Authority to enhance the school’s early years provision by opening a nursery that will cater for children from 9 months to 4 years. Thus requiring a change in age range for the school from 4-11 years to 0-11 years.

The new early years provision will be embedded within the Trust’s and school’s leadership, and will operate from within the school’s existing buildings (The Den). The Harbour Schools Partnership has a great deal of experience in relation to supporting academy nursery provision across its schools. Being able to offer places from 9 months will provide greater consistency and continuity for children.  This will also enable staff to identify and respond to the children’s needs well before they start in their foundation class; thus having a greater impact on their development.

Parents will have the option to choose nursery places between 07:45 and 17:45 all year round (46 weeks) or term times only (38 weeks). The same hours are available for primary aged children through the use of our before and after school provision (Wrap Around Care – WAC).

All nursery places for 0-4 year olds will operate from the school’s Den building, which is part of the school site. Parents will have a convenient one stop drop off and pick up for their children.

Admission to the Nursery

Admission to the nursery provision will be managed by Harbour Schools Partnership and South Brent Primary school will follow the Devon County Council Nursery Admissions Policy.  Parents will still need to make a separate application to Devon County Council for a place in the reception class.

Capital and Planning

If this proposal is approved, some internal reconfigurations of the school’s Den building will be required including improvements to the outdoor and indoor space and facilities to ensure the building is suitable for nursery provision. Devon County Council have agreed to provide a capital grant towards part of the costs of the works required and the school is also making an application to the Department for Education’s (DfE) Phase 2 School Based Nursery Capital Grant.

This proposal will not affect the Published Admission Number (PAN) for the school, nor the capacity, and will not impact on classroom space for the current school aged children.

Indicative Timescale

An indicative timeline is detailed below.

• The consultation will run from Wednesday 5^th November 2025 to Wednesday 26^th November 2025.
• Following the consultation period, the school and Trustees of Harbour Schools Partnership will consider the consultation responses and decide whether or not to make a consolidated application to the DfE’ s School Based Nursery Grant for capital and for an extension to the school’s age range.
• The application to the DfE will include all the feedback received to the consultation.  It is the DfE who will consider the application, and outcome of the consultation, and decide whether or not to approve the change to the age range and the capital grant.
• Proposed implementation: if the proposal is approved, we are looking to open in September 2026.

Consultation – How Do I Make My Views Known?

Your views are important, and we would value your opinions to be part of the decision-making process. 

The outcome of this consultation will form part of the application to the DfE. Please note that consultation responses will also therefore be shared with the DfE.

The consultation period will run from Wednesday 5^th November to Wednesday 26^th November 2025.

You can send your comments by:

Emailing: southbrent@thsp.org.uk please mark your email ‘Nursery Consultation’ Or by writing to: South Brent Primary School, Nursery Consultation, Totnes Road, South Brent, Devon, TQ10 9JN.

The closing date for responses is by midnight on Wednesday 26^th November 2025.

All responses to the consultation will be considered and will be shared with the school’s leadership team, Board of Directors and Trustees. Responses will also be shared with the Department for Education as the decision-maker, but we will not send individual responses to any specific points made.

The Trust Privacy Notice can be found via this weblink: https://ventrus.org.uk/Privacy-Notices/