Pre School Update 2021

Mickleton Pre-School update

We hope you and your families are well as we continue to live through these challenging times. We’re writing to you with an update about plans to reopen a pre-school at Mickleton Primary. At a full governing body meeting on December 10, the governors voted to delay plans for the reopening until September 2022.

We’re aware many of you will be disappointed to hear this news, so we wanted to explain the reasons behind our decision. As I’m sure you’ll know, Covid-19 has had a tremendous impact on the school and although Mr Roberts and his team are doing a fantastic job, we feel that it is not the right time to add another class and all the associated activity around reopening for the start of the next school year in 2021.

Current social distancing measures mean the Garden Room, where the pre-school will be based, is needed by our Breakfast Club and Hedgie’s After School Club. When the pre-school reopens, we hope as many children as possible will join it and help make it a success as funding is allocated per child attending. Without being able to show off the facilities through visits and open days, recruiting enough pupils is potentially challenging.

We’d like to reassure you that we intend to look in detail at reopening the pre-school in September 2022 over the next year, and we apologise again for the delay. We’d really like to expand our school community to welcome three and four-year-olds as we know this will have a positive impact on the children’s Early Years education. However, we have to consider the impact of opening a pre-school on the entire school, particularly in light of the global pandemic. When we have more news to share, we’ll be back in touch.

Thank you for your patience and support. In the meantime, despite the challenges the pandemic brings this year, we hope you have a lovely festive season.

With all best wishes

Jacqui Le Maitre, Chair of Governors, and the Governing Body