Saxilby Church of England Primary School Nursery Review

Three-year-olds join the school community through Saxilby's nursery provision. It forms part of the early years at Saxilby Church of England Primary School. This places the nursery within a primary school.

In June 2023, children in the early years felt safe, were happy and enjoyed learning. That gives parents a useful picture of children's experience at that point, alongside the practical distinction between joining the nursery and securing a later school place.

At the June 2023 inspection, a broad curriculum was already in place, starting in the school's early years. It was connected to the school's values, giving the youngest children's education a place within the school's wider approach.

The teaching described at that inspection included early mathematics, with tasks broken into smaller stages. For a young child, that meant tackling learning in manageable steps rather than being expected to grasp a whole task at once. This was a concrete feature of the school's teaching approach, relevant to children beginning to work with mathematical ideas.

At the June 2023 inspection, a planned phonics scheme was in place, starting in the early years. Phonics introduces the sounds children use in learning to read. Across the school's phonics teaching at that time, staff checked sound recall, revisited uncertain sounds and gave additional help to pupils who needed it. These checks made remembering and practising part of the learning process. The early years starting point connected children's first encounters with sounds to the school's subsequent reading teaching.

Children's happiness and sense of safety were clear early years findings in June 2023. Enjoying learning matters here too: the youngest children were included in that positive picture, rather than the finding being confined to older pupils.

Safeguarding arrangements across the school were effective at that time. Staff understood how to raise concerns, and leaders worked with other agencies to obtain help for pupils. For nursery families, those school-wide arrangements provide the wider protective structure around the early years provision. They are a finding about the school as a whole, alongside the specific finding that early years children felt safe.

Attending the nursery does not guarantee a Reception place. Nursery admission and Reception admission are separate processes, so families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions route by the applicable deadline.

The important planning point is to treat these as two decisions. Choosing this nursery for a child's early learning should not be taken as confirmation of where that child will start Reception.

The nursery is part of the school on Highfield Road in Saxilby, Lincoln, LN1 2QJ. The school telephone number is 01522702669. These give families a concrete location and a direct contact point for nursery enquiries.