St Michael’s C of E Primary Academy – proposal to change the age range

Consultation on proposal to change the age range of St Michael’s Church of England Primary Academy, Exeter, from 5-11 to 2-11 years of age

If you need this document in a different format or language, please St Christopher’s CofE (primary) MAT 07483 975644 or via email: Office@stcmat.org

Proposal
St Christopher’s Church of England (Primary) Multi Academy Trust is consulting on a proposal to change the age range of St Michael’s Church of England Primary Academy, Exeter from 5-11 to 2-11 years of age. The proposed implementation date, if the proposal is approved, is estimated to be 01 September 2025.

Background
Heavitree Community Preschool is a community run pre-school, managed by a voluntary board of trustees, located in purpose-built accommodation adjacent to St Michael’s C of E Primary Academy. The Pre-School provides places for children aged 2-4 years of age. Heavitree Community Pre-School and St Michael’s C of E Primary Academy have a longstanding relationship and work closely together.

St Michael’s C of E Primary Academy is proposing to establish a Nursery Class and thereby extend the age range of the school from 5-11 to 2-11 years of age. If approved, the school’s Nursery Class would operate from the existing Heavitree Community Pre-School building. There will be no change to the number of places offered; the nursery building can accommodate up to 34 places for 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds. If the proposal were to be approved, the children currently attending the pre-school would be registered on the school roll. Parents would still need to make a separate application to Devon County Council for a place in the Reception Class. Parents and children should experience very little change to the service they receive; there will be no break in service for children that are attending the pre-school because of this change.

Benefits of the proposal
The school will be able to establish the strongest links possible with families from the outset working to support them from a younger age.

It has been identified, elsewhere in Devon, that a nursery class is often a more sustainable early years delivery model than committee run pre-schools that can struggle to find enough parent volunteers to sit on a committee, employ staff and run the provision they need to enable them to go to work.

The school already has a relationship with the pre-school and can bring its early years expertise to better support the children and staff. The nursery would better enable families in the area to access this provision and be a natural progression into the school.

In the key areas of safeguarding, leadership and quality of education there would be effective oversight and delivery within the new provision. The school and Trust have substantial experience of supporting pupils with SEND, and this area would be a focus for targeted support when the new provision opens. That is; to be able to effectively support parents and pupils with strategies, to ensure pupils have access to appropriate agencies and support via a dedicated school SENCO and Trust inclusion team.

Pre-school team members would have further access to ongoing, high quality CPD as part of a larger EY team in school, but also across the Trust. Joining other nursery staff for high quality training would ensure that provision in the new setting is balanced, rich and optimised for the pupils therein. Team members would have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues, drawing on expertise and build long term plans to develop and improve provision for children in the setting.

Quality assurance would be provided by Trust leaders and experienced teachers, to ensure statutory duties are met, along with assuring the quality of experience and education for all children within the setting. Further access to the St Michael’s resources, grounds and forest school provides for opportunities for the provision and experience of children within the setting to be further enhanced.

Parents within the preschool would still benefit from the positive relationship they have with their child’s key worker but would further benefit from improved communication from the school, and support from experienced leaders therein. Parents of pupils with SEND needs would be well served by an experienced SEND team who would support, signpost and build relationships that for many will last well into their school primary school years. This will be enhanced by access to the family support worker within St Michaels and the variety of parent education opportunities on offer. Finally, the safeguarding of pupils would be robust, leveraging the experience of a large team of DSL and DDSLs, with external quality assurance of these systems. Children whose parents meet the free school meal eligibility criteria and attend for the whole day will be entitled to a free school meal.

Possible questions you may have:

Q1. Will parents be able to pay for childcare and any consumables (snack, nappies etc) through an electronic system?
A: Anything that is currently provided can be paid through our current electronic parent payment system, which is MCAS.

Q2. Will all nursery children be able to buy a school dinner?
A: Yes, they will.

Staff
If the proposal is approved, early years staff will be employed directly by the Academy Trust. A school is required to work to the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage framework that governs the ratios and qualifications of staffing.

Capital & Planning
The intention is that the assets of the Pre-School would transfer to the school. The proposal will not affect the capacity of the school for statutory school aged children, nor the Published Admission Number (PAN) of the school.

Consultative and Decision-Making Process
The consultation period will run from 12 February 2025 to 12 March 2025. All responses to this consultation will be carefully considered by the School, St Christopher’s C of E Multi Academy Trust and shared with decision makers at Heavitree Community Pre-School before any decision is made by the Academy Trust to submit an application to the Department for Education (DfE) to change the age range of the school from 5-11 to 2-11.

If a decision is made to proceed with the proposal, following consideration of the consultation responses, an application will be made to the Department for Education (DfE) South West Regions Group. It is the DfE’s South West’s Region Group who will make the final decision on the proposal to establish a Nursery Class at St Michael’s C of E Primary Academy through the changing of the age range of the school from 5-11 to 2-11. The DfE will make this decision after considering responses received to the consultation and the application submitted by the Academy Trust. Please note that consultation responses will also therefore be shared with the DfE South West Regions Group.

Responding to the consultation
The Academy Trust welcome responses to the consultation by the closing date of 12 March 2025 by Emailing: consultation@stcmat.org

All responses to the consultation will be fully considered but we will not send individual responses to any specific points made.

The Trust has a suite of Privacy Notices explaining how the Trust will process personal data that are publicly available on the schools and trust websites. Link here.