When the former Government unveiled plans to expand funded childcare entitlements to working parents of two-years-olds in the March 2023 Budget, St Stephen Churchtown Academy and Nursery (SSCA) had a decision to make: should it forge ahead with the development of a new Area Resource Base for the growing number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)? Or should it focus its efforts on creating new provision for two-year-olds?
‘We opted for the latter,’ explains head teacher Lisa James. ‘We felt that getting children in early would have a greater impact on more children and families over time. It would also allow us to identify those with SEND and get them into the system earlier so that we can support them through their school journey.’
SSCA opened its two-year-old provision in January, following a consultation to lower the starting age for the school from three years to two. ‘We knew there would be demand for term-time provision for two-year-olds accessing the 15-hour entitlements from April and that this would only be likely to increase from September 2025 when the offer extends to 30 hours,’ Lisa says. Sixteen children are currently registered in the new two-year-old room, which forms part of the school’s EYFS Unit. ‘We’ll be at maximum capacity with our current staffing when our new starters join between now and January, when they turn two,’ Lisa says.
But while the nursery and pre-school are in demand, falling rolls have impacted this year’s Reception provision. ‘We’re a one-and-a-half form entry of 45 children per year, but we only have one Reception class of 28 this year,’ Lisa says.
HIGH LEVEL OF NEED
The primary school and nursery draw in children from the local village of St Stephen-in-Brannel, an area of regeneration with affordable housing schemes and a secondary school. Pupils also come from the surrounding ‘clay villages’ in mid Cornwall, which have been mining China clay for the past 250 years. A substantial number of households face deprivation due to barriers to housing and access to services, which is reflected in the school’s ‘challenging’ demographic make-up.
Sixty-five per cent of the 290 pupils on roll at SSCA are in the local authority’s highest 20 per cent indices of deprivation, and 35 per cent are on the ‘record of need’ for SEND.
‘We have over double the national average of children with Education, Health and Care Plans and a third of the school are in receipt of the Pupil Premium,’ Lisa explains.
‘Our demographics are challenging due to the high level of need. This has been a key driver for opening our two-year-old provision,’ she adds.
The logistics of setting up the two-year-old room was ‘challenging’, Lisa says. ‘We didn’t want a standalone two-year-old provision. We wanted it to be a seamless flow into pre-school and Reception. So we turned the pre-school room into a dedicated space for twos and created an EYFS Unit.’
Flooring was ripped out and replaced, bulky cupboards removed, the nappy-changing and toilet area had an overhaul and a designated sleeping area was created. The room is now a bright, airy, uncluttered space with cosy corners and purposeful provision designed to meet the distinct needs of two-year-olds.
There is a home corner, water-play area, book area, creative play and construction area, with age-appropriate furniture and resources supplied by Early Excellence. Outdoors there is a wooden climbing walkway for physical development and mini sheds from supplier Cosy.
‘The repurposing of the room, the resources and the staff training cost around £15,000,’ Lisa says. ‘With falling rolls and schools facing deficit budgets, an undertaking of this scale is not always viable.’
‘QUALITY INTERACTIONS’
Aspire Academy Trust, which SSCA is part of, is no stranger to running school-based nurseries. It has 37 primary academies and 22 nurseries across Cornwall, with provision for two-year-olds running in 11 schools, one of which is run by an external private, voluntary and independent (PVI) provider. Nursery World award-winner Helen Bingham, who was recognised for her ‘outstanding contribution’ as EYFS lead across the multi-academy trust, has worked with Lisa to ensure that the two-year-old provision meets the highest standards of care and education in line with EYFS guidelines.
‘These are our most vulnerable children,’ Helen says. ‘They need high-quality provision to get off to a flying start. Across the trust, we ensure that ratios for this age group remain at one:four so that children get quality interactions. We provide staff training with a focus on child development, and we ensure that the senior leadership team (SLT) has a real understanding of early years curriculum and pedagogy, which is fed down through the school.
‘Every element of the environment has been carefully considered: the size and location of the toilets, the access points, where they eat, what they eat. It’s a huge undertaking, not to mention the challenges around staffing.’
Now that the room is up and running and the school has had its first full Ofsted inspection covering the new two-year-old room, Lisa says she can ‘breathe’. Inspectors who visited in July commended the school’s strategy to ‘prioritise the early years’ by making ‘significant investments in terms of staffing, curriculum and resources’. The report, published in September, also recognises the efforts made to identify pupils with SEND ‘swiftly in the nursery’.
Lisa says, ‘With the support of the trust, we are fulfilling our aim to get children with SEND identified earlier. If they’re already in the building and known to staff, we have more of a chance of supporting them. Our SEND team visits the nurseries, identifies the needs and works with the council and other providers to get children supported early. Early years is now becoming part of the culture of the school. We’re all learning from the two-year-olds as we can see their start in life and everyone is part of that two-year-old’s journey building upwards.’
But despite Lisa’s enthusiasm for getting twos inside the school gates, she has one concern: staffing. ‘We need to be able to meet the demand for the new funded entitlements, but we can only do this if we can get staff with the correct EYFS qualification and skill.’
Her two-year old room is led by a Level 5 practitioner who previously ran a nursery before taking on the role of teaching assistant at the school, along with two Level 3s and a Level 2. ‘I’m fortunate to have practitioners that know the EYFS curriculum inside out. They know the requirements for two-year-olds, the changing, the sleeping, the recording, all the health and safety and the safeguarding requirements. These things are crucial,’ she says.
Retention of staff is also a key consideration in school-based nurseries, Helen says. ‘Our trust has a focus on wellbeing, which supports retention. But because our contracts have a four-week notice period, we could be in a situation where someone hands in their notice in August and we wouldn’t have time to recruit for the start of September. We don’t want to have to say to parentsthat we can’t provide these spaces because we don’t have the staff.’
However, the increased funding from local authorities for the two-year-old funded entitlements makes the offer financially viable for the school, Lisa says. Most parents currently access the 15 hours of funded childcare and do not pay for extra top-up sessions. ‘This is likely to increase in demand with the move towards more working parents taking up places,’ Lisa explains. ‘We currently receive more money from the Government for funded childcare places than we receive for paid-for sessions, which are £6 an hour.’
MOVING FORWARDS
The next step for the trust is to look at wraparound provision and offering breakfast and after-school clubs to support working parents, which is being trialled in some schools. As for plans to extend provision to include under-twos, Helen says discussions are ‘ongoing’ but the trust is currently focusing on supporting its schools and keeping its provision within the same Ofsted inspection framework.
Lisa’s advice to schools considering bidding for the new capital funding to create school-based nurseries under Labour is: ‘Don’t run before you can walk. For us, it was important to get our provision for twos established first. It can’t be done as a half measure. It needs full commitment from the SLT. We’ve got these children now for potentially the next nine years. We need to act fast to ensure we are doing the best for them and their families. It’s been a really powerful experience, one that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to others.’
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