Harris Primary Academy Chafford Hundred Nursery

Speech and language support has a physical home here: an attached nursery resource base, supported by Thurrock LA and the charity ICAN. That gives families with communication needs a specific provision to explore alongside the nursery's ordinary sessions.

Run by Harris Primary Academy Chafford Hundred on its school site in Thurrock, the nursery offers one school year before Reception. For the September 2025 intake, provision began in the September after a child's third birthday, with capacity for 52 children. Full-time places depended on spare capacity after part-time places were filled. The model centres on a single nursery year, rather than an open-ended childcare arrangement.

A consistent morning or afternoon pattern shapes attendance. For the September 2025 intake, children attended five mornings or five afternoons; mixing the two was not permitted. Each session lasted three hours, giving children a repeated daily routine and families a fixed collection pattern.

Outdoor provision supports the Early Years Curriculum, taking learning beyond the classroom. Reading also forms part of early years life. In March 2025, Ofsted found that children enjoyed listening to stories and that activities developed their understanding of letter sounds before they combined sounds to read words. These are concrete steps towards reading, rather than simply exposure to books.

Settling begins before the nursery year. New nursery families receive a home visit and an invitation to a welcome meeting, while children spend a transition session with their new teacher. These arrangements give parents time to share their child's needs and children an introduction to the adult who will teach them.

The speech and language resource base is complemented by specialist provision for children aged 3-4, including a speech and language therapist and a specialist higher-level teaching assistant. Access should be discussed with the SEND team. The nursery building has ramps and an accessible toilet, practical features for children with mobility or personal care needs.

For children receiving SEND support, parents participate in termly reviews and planning the next steps. Specialist assessments and interventions require parental knowledge and consent. This makes family involvement part of the support process.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place. Families must make a separate application to their home local authority using its Common Application Form and name the academy as a preference. For September 2027 entry, the deadline is 15 January 2027.

Attendance does confer priority for that intake: nursery children occupy the fifth oversubscription category. Children must attend at the application deadline, and parents must confirm attendance on the form. Four categories come first, so this remains a priority rather than a promised place. Within an oversubscribed category, nearer homes take precedence.

For children with SEND moving between classes, preparation can include photographs of new staff and rooms in transition books, visits to the new room and meetings with staff. Familiarisation and admission remain separate matters.

For the September 2025 intake, morning sessions ran from 8:30am to 11:30am and afternoons from 12:30pm to 3:30pm. The universal funded entitlement covered 15 hours across five days, without top-up charges for those sessions. Full-time attendance involved an additional daily hour that parents could pay for; collecting at 2:30pm avoided that charge. Contact the academy for current charges.

Nursery enquiries go to Admissions@harrisprimarychaffordhundred.org.uk or 01375 484490. Keep the nursery booking and the later local authority Reception application as two separate tasks.