Longfields Nursery and Primary Schools

One School or Two?

1.  Background

When the nursery at Longfields School was built in 1990/91, it was established as a nursery school with its own governing body. It shares the same site and headteacher as the primary school. However, it has its own separate budget and legal status.

The way in which the nursery and the primary schools at Longfields are organised – as two separate schools - is fairly uncommon in Oxfordshire. Across the County, the normal arrangement is for nursery classes to be organisationally part of the main school and to share the same budget and governing body as host the primary school. Currently, there are 67 primary or special schools in Oxfordshire with nursery classes attached. By contrast, there are only 6 primary/special schools which, like Longfields, have attached nursery schools. In recent years, several attached nursery schools have opted to go through the necessary legal process to become nursery classes attached to the “host” primary school.

In practical terms, whether a nursery is an organisational part of the host primary school makes very little difference. In most cases children and parents would not notice any difference. In both types of establishment the approach to teaching and learning is the same. The approach to admissions is also the same. All nursery establishments in Oxfordshire are expected to apply the County’s nursery  admissions policy.

The main differences between a nursery class and an attached nursery school are at the level of management and governance. The two most important differences are as follows:

Funding – nursery classes are financed according to an established County Council formula which gives the school a certain level of funding for each pupil on roll. This funding, along with certain premises costs, is delegated to the school governors. The Headteacher and the governors have to ensure that the costs of staffing and equipping the nursery are met from the budget which has been delegated to the school. Nursery schools, on the other hand, are funded centrally by the County Council. The County Council meets all their costs. Their budget is dealt with totally separately from that of the primary school. The one cannot cross-subsidize the other.

Governance – nursery classes are part of the primary school and their affairs are the overall responsibility of the school’s governing body. Nursery schools normally have a separate governing body of their own, which is independent from that of the host primary school. However, at Longfields special agreement has been given for there to be just one governing body for the two schools. This special arrangement has been in place since 1998.

2.	The current proposal

The current proposal to combine the schools into a single establishment has come from the governing body of both schools. The County Council has considered the Governors’ proposal and has agreed to organise public consultations on it. At this stage, the County Council does not have any particular view on the proposal. It wants to find out what parents, staff and governors think about it.

Before the two schools can be combined, a legal process must take its course. This involves:

•	The publication of statutory notices in the local press
•	A two-month period during which formal objections can be lodged
•	A formal decision first by the County Council and then by Oxfordshire’s School Organisation Committee.

This process usually takes several months to complete.

In the case of Longfields, the statutory proposals would involve the “technical” closure of the nursery school and the extension of the primary school’s age range from 5-11 to 3-11 years.

Given the time required for the statutory procedures to take their course, the earliest date at which any amalgamation could take effect is September 2002.

3.	Consultation

Parents, staff and governors are invited to a public meeting at Longfields school on Wednesday 16 January at 7.00 p.m. to give County Council Officers their views on the above proposals.

Parents, staff and governors can also send us their views on the proposals in writing. Written comments should be addressed to: 

Chief Education Officer
Early Years Section
Education Department
Macclesfield House
New Road, Oxford OX1 1NA  

email earlyyears.education@oxfordshire.gov.uk 
fax 01865 816226. 

Written comments on the proposal must be received by Monday 28 January 2002 at the latest. 

The views expressed at the meeting on 16 January and any written comments will be reported to the County Council’s Executive on 6 February. On the basis of this report, the Executive will decide whether statutory proposals should be published to amalgamate the two schools.