Nursery is helping parents get active
●● From left: Holly Edmundson, four, and three-year-olds Grace Law and Paytlyn Riley use their programming skills
FREE PRESS REPORTER
ANEW communal space for parents to access afternoon activities is being created at Bacup Nursery School.
Responding to feedback from parents, staff and governors, the Lancashire County Council (LCC) maintained nursery school has applied for permission to build an extension to its building on Cowtoot Lane, Bacup.
Headteacher Andrea Cooper said: “The extension is fully costed and will be on the Bacup Cricket Club side of our premises with a separate access for parents and children. It will also link to the staff room with folding doors which will allow us to create a large usable space.
“Now children’s centres are no more, our parents have told us they have been struggling to attend afternoon activities with their children because they now move around Rossendale to different locations each week.
“The parents can’t get to or afford to travel to Rawtenstall or Haslingden, but they want their children to be able to access the activities and benefit from meeting and socially interacting with new children.
“Our room will be available for activities and our staff can use the area to deliver sessions for parents and their children and Bacup Nursery School will be helping to meet a need.”
LCC is currently reviewing all of its maintained nursery schools and assessing their financial viability.
Mrs Cooper said: “Bacup Nursery School is 66 years old this year and our past four Ofsted inspections have been outstanding. We provide nursery school education for children aged two to five and currently have around 110 children on roll. We are in a positive financial position, have a balanced budget and we are still spending our money wisely to ensure our children get the very
●● Oliver Suthers, four, making jam tarts best possible start from their nursery education. We have first class facilities and this year have developed a cookery room where each child learns how to use their own equipment in small groups.
“We have developed our own curriculum and this is very personalised for each child and looks at their physical development, their vocabulary and sequential learning and each child is monitored daily. We are an educational establishment and subject to a rigorous Ofsted assessment framework; we are not a childcare provider.”
Besides Mrs Cooper as headteacher, Bacup Nursery School also has qualified teachers and highlyqualified teaching support staff. Private day nurseries are both staffed and inspected completely differently.