Bleasdale School Nursery Review

Sensory learning and therapy within the school day give Bleasdale’s nursery provision its distinctive context. This is early education within a special school in Silverdale, serving children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, severe learning difficulties and/or autistic spectrum condition. The school’s age range begins at 2.

Early years foundation stage (EYFS) pupils belong within the Lower School alongside Key Stage 1 children. Acorns and Seedlings are named classes within that provision. For families, the important distinction is the combination of education and care: learning sits alongside support for communication and physical needs.

Individual needs shape the Lower School’s sensory curriculum. Body awareness and independence sit alongside communication, emotional wellbeing and exploration of the world. These are practical learning priorities, connecting what children experience with how they express themselves and participate in everyday routines.

Swimming adds a different setting for movement. All Lower School children can access sessions in a heated pool with specialist swimming coordinators. Across the school, therapeutic learning includes hydrotherapy, music interaction and rebound therapy; these form part of the wider provision around classroom learning.

Lower School lunchtime activities include beanbag target games, outdoor play equipment and passing balls between children. Songs, shared stories and craft activities also feature. The emphasis includes learning to play beside other children, giving social interaction a place within familiar activities.

The school’s Sensory studio contains a wind tunnel, an interactive bubble tube and a floor projector. Its sensory library combines window seating and tree bookshelves with tactile books, lift-the-flap books and pop-ups. These school facilities give a concrete sense of the sensory resources around the early years provision, rather than establishing a fixed nursery timetable.

Therapy and nursing input can take place within the Lower School’s classroom or school setting. Speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy are available alongside nursing support, bringing different aspects of a child’s care into the same educational setting.

Settling is approached as a partnership. Bleasdale aims to involve parents, carers and professionals who already know the child, and to use early assessments to prepare individual education programmes and care procedures. The purpose is to build understanding of the child before routines become established.

Evidence for Learning enables families to view learning photographs and progress, comment and contribute their own images or videos through individual secure access. That gives parents a way to connect experiences at home with learning at school.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Nursery and Reception admission must be treated as separate processes, with the appropriate application route and deadline followed for the next stage. Special-school applications follow a different process from ordinary primary-school applications; families should keep that distinction central when planning progression.

The school day runs from 9.00 am to 3.30 pm, with a break around 10.30 am and lunch between noon and 1.00 pm. These are school-wide timings.

School uniform combines grey bottoms with a white polo shirt or blouse; royal-blue logo sweatshirts, hoodies and cardigans come through School Trends. General enquiries go to the school office on 01524 701217 or admin@bleasdaleschool.lancs.sch.uk. Families can also contact the school to book a visit.