Highfields Academy Nursery Review

Familiar stories and the sounds within them give Highfields Academy’s provision for two-year-olds a clear starting point. Children join in enthusiastically, then listen to sound patterns and practise repeating them. These are concrete activities for a parent to picture: sharing a story, listening closely and taking part aloud.

This is nursery provision within Highfields Academy, a primary school in Nantwich. Its place within the school connects it to a curriculum designed to build knowledge from the early years onwards.

Story participation is the clearest picture of the nursery day. In October 2024, Ofsted found that children in the two-year-old provision enjoyed joining in with stories they knew and carefully reproduced patterns of sound. Familiarity gives children something they can contribute to, while listening and repetition put attention on how words sound. The emphasis here is on participation as well as listening.

The wider curriculum begins in the early years and orders learning so that children can add to what they already know. For families, that makes the relationship between activities and learning important: a story is an opportunity to listen, recognise a pattern and respond. The evidenced nursery activity is specific, rather than a promise about future school results. It gives a useful picture of children actively taking part in early language learning.

School-wide safeguarding arrangements were effective in October 2024. That finding concerns the school as a whole, rather than a separate nursery judgement.

Support for special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) needs closer attention. In October 2024, the school did not consistently recognise individual needs accurately, and help sometimes came too late or did not work effectively. Some pupils consequently struggled to engage with learning. These are school-wide concerns, not findings attributed specifically to the nursery, but they matter to families considering provision within the same school.

Curriculum delivery and assessment also required attention across the school. Some teaching was inconsistent, and checks in a few subjects sometimes failed to identify and address misunderstandings quickly enough. Families should distinguish the specific positive finding about two-year-olds’ story participation from these broader concerns.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a Reception place at Highfields Academy. Families must make a separate Reception application through the normal admissions process; choosing the nursery should not be treated as securing the next place.

For the Reception intake in 2027, the application deadline is 15 January 2027. That is a separate decision and deadline to keep in view while considering nursery. Being part of the same school and securing admission to its Reception are different matters, so families need to plan for both stages.

Highfields Academy is on Cumberland Avenue in Nantwich, CW5 6HA. The school telephone number is 01270814570, providing a direct contact route for nursery enquiries.

Reception planning. The 2027 intake has a 15 January 2027 application deadline. Keep that date alongside nursery planning: attendance does not remove the need to apply separately.