looking for info about the benefits of having preschool provision on a primary school site - any teachers? governors?

[redundant]

hi there, hope i can write this so it makes sense! In short, our local primary has given notice to the preschool provider that currently rents a room on its site. This will in effect cause the preschool to close, as there are no other suitable premises locally.

We are planning to challenge the school governors decision and ask them to reconsider, and I hoped that the wise people of mumsnet might be able to point me to any research or evidence on the benefits of having preschool/early years provision on the same site as a primary school.

Experience and common sense tells me it makes for a smoother transition to reception, a better experience for the child, and must also be a 'selling point' for the school, but I am just trying to find as many arguments/evidence as possible. Any pointers really gratefully received, thanks so much. Also going to post this in the preschool topic.

Attendance at on site preschool is not normally a criteria for primary school admission, so that migh fall down as an argument against

The school might have a community commitment written into policies or (what's it called, come on , come ON brain) a mission statement that you could point to, metaphorically speaking?

What do they intend to do with the extra space?

Our old school had a pre-school on site run by a private provider in premises that weren't really suitable for the nursery. -Additionally, the school needed to expand to accommodate 2 form entry.

I know of a school that had to do this, in order to accommodate a 'bulge' class.

The pre-school was accommodated in a prefab on the school playground - is this an alternative you might look into?

thanks both of you. There is no plan (as far as we know to utilise the space). It will stand empty during the day. They share the space with a before and after school club, and have been told the space can't do both. School intake numbers actually down for this coming year so no pressure on school space from that.

There is presumably some hidden agenda or school politics playing out here that we don't have the full story too, but won't bore you with that!!

sorry, yes the site is a portacabin on school grounds, that was funded and kitted out by the preschool at their cost. So fit for purpose. They have ploughed a lot of money into it which will now be lost. No bulge classes, had that in a previous year but numbers well down for this Sept.

I thought the Ofsted report the other week said something about preschoo ls on school grounds being the best preparation for reception - will google.

thanks so far for replies!

I think the community commitment thing might be an angle, though no idea if that is written down anywhere - thanks!

Space can definitely do both. A local preschool I know shares with a before and after school club. It does mean adjustments and negotiations on both sides but works in general. Would the school consider expanding their age range to 3-11 and make the preschool part of school? There should be incentives for doing this soon. Nurseries as part of school are big on the education agenda at the moment.

Our school has a joint nursery and reception unit and each family group has fifteen reception and ten nursery children with the nursery children changing over on Weds lunchtime. they used to have a separate nursery provision but made the decision to combine them based on compelling evidence that it was a better environment for the children.

They follow the general teachings of The Regio Emilia Approach

My DD was one of the first to go through their combined system as both nursery and reception pupil. Not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but in her year group, more than 40% of the children are now working well above the level expected for their age group.

The manager is happy to discuss with any other educational providers and give a tour. Please feel free to PM me for details of the school.

and they are in the process of expanding to provide age 2 nursery places. They will be separate from the main teaching space, but will come together to do certain things afaik

this is so interesting thank you all.

Is there any info anywhere about potential/future incentives for schools including early years provision on site (or providing it I suppose is what i mean)?

i have kind of picked up about the nurseries in school being discussed recently, but need to research that more so i know what i'm talking about. Haven't yet managed to find any evidence/stats that it leads to better outcomes although that seems a given to me.

I believe that OFSTED are trying to get schools to provide pre-school education on-site and are making life pretty difficult for independent pre-schools.

There is also supposed to be some serious money in it for the Primary School - would not be at all surprised if this is the route your school are aiming to go down.

Our school has preschool as well as school nursery. The preschool building is also wrap around facility for preschool nursery and reception age children - the older ones are in the school hall. It works brilliantly. Many kids start age 2.5 and move all the way through. Miles easier for parents as everyone is on one site and no double drop offs for young children and the staff know all the children really well. No idea why everyone else doesn't do it

redundant, it would be tricky to do that research because there are so many variables:

• Attendance at pre-school / nursery at a specific school does not [except in a few rare cases] give priority for school admission, so the children attending the pre-school / nursery can be completely different from those who then start reception.

• Many children who start school come from full daycare (because of the needs of working parents). When these are mixed with the children who may have been in the pre-school / nursery (typically sessional care) it would be very hard to separate the effects of each on the progress of the cohort as a whole.

• Many pre-schools are smaller than the school the children attend - so e.g. our local pre-school does not have 60 per year group, while the primary school it is next to does. Again, hard to pick out the effct of pre-school given that it necessarily takes only a percentage of the cohort.

Obviously in some areas there will be 100% progression from pre-school to Reception - this was true in our old village (until the school went massively downhill and people sent their children to the excellent pre-school but then shipped them off to neighbouring villages for school). However, within the welter of other variables, picking up whether having a pre-school on site vs having it at a remote location has an effect on pupils' long term success is always likely to be tricky.

thanks, yes i can understand that getting hard evidence would be difficult - perhaps that's a wild goose chase then. But consensus seems to be that is the way early years education will be heading?

ps thanks to everyone that's taken time to reply, is really appreciated