Parents pledge to fight for retention of Granville Plus Nursery School

Extract from Ofsted Report July 2015

Parents of children at Granville Plus Nursery School in South Kilburn are petitioning Brent Council over plans for the redevelopment of the site on which the nursery, including a recent purpose built extension, is located LINK.  So far there have been no clear reassurances from the Council about the future of the popular and much needed nursery school and is special provision.

This is the parents' introduction to the petition (edited):

Brent Council have decided to redevelop the site in which  the Granville Plus Nursery is currently located and have omitted its existence in both of its two options for redevelopment.

We, the parents and carers of children who currently attend this nursery, as well as past users and members of the local community, strongly object to its closure and the loss of the range of valuable services provided.

The nursery has been serving the community since the late 1970s and 75% of the children currently attending are from NW6 with a further 14% from NW10.  8% of its places are for children in need, usually with social care needs, including child protection. Currently 17% of its children have a significant special educational need or disability (SEND) which includes 11 in their specialist horizon provision and an additional 8 places for children with significant specialist needs, including physical disabilities and medical needs.

The child with SEN are fully integrated within the mainstream nursery environment and the provisions in place, which include autism provision, were recently judged to be Outstanding in the latest Ofsted report.

51% of its place are being used for babies and 2-3 year olds with nearly all of them funded by the 'vulnerable 2 year olds' NEG2 funding.

Many of its current children have parents who themselves attended this provision and who have placed their children in its care to enable them to return to work as the nursery school offers places to young babies all the way through to school age and is open from 8am to 6pm, 48 years of the year.  It is staffed by highly experienced early years experts, some qualified to Masters level, with all teams led by a qualified teacher.

The loss of this provision would undoubtedly impact on these parents, some of whom may have no other choice than to give up their education or work if no alternative child care provider could be found offering the same provision as Granville Plus Nursery School within the local area and with similar flexible fee structures.

In addition to this the Granville Plus Nursery School also employs several people from the local community by providing placements for NVQ Level 3 students and they have a partnership with the Institute of Education training staff to be qualified teachers.

In addition to this this Granville annually run a highly respected evidence based parenting programme, Strengthening Communities, which has successfully helped raise parenting confidence and improved social cohesion.

The nursery garden is also an integral part of the Early Years curriculum and often a huge surprise for those people who first encounter it as it is truly an oasis within a highly urbanised environment. It provides a place in which children, who otherwise would have no access to a safe outside space, to play and discover.

We feel that the loss of our Nursery School will have an immediate and dramatic impact to us, the users at present, and to future generations within our community.

We intend to fight to keep these vital services available in our community.