We believe that there is a local need for more nursery places for two-year-olds and three-year-olds and this is supported by the earlier consultation period. We would offer up to 32 places. This would have a positive impact on the school community offering excellent early years education and providing through education until the age of 11. 

We are keen to further understand the views of our local community on this proposal and so, as per best practice recommended by the Department of Education (DfE), we have incorporated a further 3-week period of consultation. This additional consultation will run from Wednesday 28th January 2026 to Friday 20th February 2026.

No. Admission arrangements to the reception class at The Raleigh School will remain unchanged and will not be affected by admission to nursery at 2 or 3 years old.  There will be no changes to our current published admissions number (PAN) for reception which remains at 60. 

There will be no major disruption for current pupils.

The Raleigh School Pre-School will operate as term-time only nursery provision and does not exceed the current operating hours of the school. Core hours will be 9am – 3pm with wraparound provision matching the existing Raleigh School times.

The data from our initial consultation and market research indicates that the majority of places will be filled by siblings of children already at The Raleigh School. Therefore, whilst it is possible that there may be a slight increase in traffic, we envisage that the majority of pupils will be local and already travelling to the school each day. 

The initial consultation was conducted in September 2025 to determine whether the Raleigh parental community required pre-school provision at the school and whether there was sufficient demand to make such provision viable.

Results from the initial consultation indicated a strong desire among parents for pre-school places at the school. In addition, parents were asked whether they would have used The Raleigh's pre-school provision had it been available when their children were of pre-school age. Responses to this question further suggested that uptake would have been sufficient to support a sustainable and viable pre-school.

As part of the consultation process, a number of free-text comments were also received from a wide range of stakeholders. These qualitative responses were carefully reviewed and responded to as part of the initial consultation.