Not enough Pre School places

liney

In my area there are two dodgy primary schools. It has been decided that the two will merge on the site of one of these schools to create a bigger, better superschool...:rolleyes:

This leaves a problem with the Pre school though. The pre school has not been given any additional places for children to start in September so therefore there will be only 66 places. This is to cover the children in the catchement area of the two schools. The teacher has told me there will be more children on the waiting list in September than will actually start!

The knock on effect will mean that the children starting year one who have not attended Pre school will out number those that have. Given the Offsted reports for the school both commented that the children were disadvantaged in that they start school with poor language skills and not much home support, leaving so many out of Pre school could be disasterous (imo). I foresee much disruption with children not used to attending the school at all, and children being held back as they learn what they should already have learnt at home, or in this case more likely Pre School.

I have no idea if my son has a space or not yet, but i intend to contact my local councillor as i am so concerned.

Has any one had something similar happen in their area, or know if it required that a minimum number of Pre School places be offered in a given area?

Did your child miss attending Pre school, and were there any adverse effects?

stardoman

How old is your son? In my area they go to nursery the year before they start reception (so the year they turn 4). My son was only offered 3 days a week initially and only did 5 days for the last term as they did not have enough spaces to offer all the children 5 sessions (this was for a 2.5 hour session each day, not full days). I belive that legally children don't have to go to school unitl the term after they turn 5.

My oldest is 9 now and is doing really well. At age 7 I was told he had a reading age of an 11 year old. One thing I have noticed is that children who have a lot of parental support seem to do well. If he does not get a place perhaps you could find other ways of helping him yourself.

Ofsted place more emphasis on letting the children just play until they start year 1 anyway, as formal learning is not beneficial before then. So I don't think it is essential that all children attend pre-school.

HTH. Mandy.

Spendless

Hi- I live an area where only 2 out of 4 nearby Primary schools have a nursery. The children not attnding/getting in the local school nurseries tend to go to other school nurseries further away or to a pre-school run in a village hall, or they take the funding to a private nursery instead.