Hightown Primary School Nursery

A start from age two is Hightown’s distinctive practical offer: its nursery extends the school’s early years provision to children aged two and above. The addition was announced in September 2024. For families considering an early start in a school setting, that age threshold matters.

Based in Thornhill, Southampton, Hightown belongs to Inspire Learning Partnership. The school aims to combine security and encouragement with challenge, helping children learn confidently. That is an educational aim rather than a promise of a particular outcome.

Creative thinking and independence feature in the trust’s curriculum aims. Inspire Learning Partnership gives each school freedom to shape its curriculum around its pupils, so the shared principles leave room for local choices rather than prescribing an identical programme across its schools.

Innovation, Passion and Nurture are three of those principles. In parent language, the trust aims to help children connect ideas, pursue questions of their own and learn to care for themselves and others. Its emphasis on relationships includes developing emotional understanding. These aims put curiosity and social development alongside learning knowledge and skills.

Inclusion also forms part of the intended curriculum. The trust says its principles are designed to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including access to experiences and knowledge that help them succeed. For a family considering nursery, the relevant emphasis is participation: the stated ambition includes children with additional needs, rather than treating them as outside the curriculum’s intended audience.

Safeguarding has a defined team structure. Each trust school has a designated safeguarding lead and at least one deputy, giving families an identified role to contact about child protection concerns. The lead is responsible for safeguarding matters within that school.

A visible detail helps distinguish those roles: safeguarding leads wear black lanyards bearing the trust logo and white DSL lettering. Other trust employees wear white lanyards with the logo. This gives parents a practical way to recognise safeguarding staff.

Behind that structure, trust schools use CPOMS to record concerns about children and keep track of them. The trust provides annual safeguarding training for employees, while safeguarding leads meet through a network each half-term and have access to supervision. These are support arrangements for staff handling concerns; they should not be read as a nursery inspection judgement.

Families also have access to National Online Safety resources through the trust. That extends the safeguarding offer beyond staff procedures to information parents and carers can use themselves.

Nursery attendance does not guarantee a place in Hightown’s Reception. Families must make a separate application through the normal admissions process, by the applicable deadline.

For the normal September Reception intake, applications go directly to the relevant local authority, Southampton for Hightown. Inspire Learning Partnership is the admissions authority for its member schools, while local authorities coordinate the process. Treat the Reception application as a separate decision and administrative step.

The school’s address is Tunstall Road, Thornhill, Southampton, SO19 6AA. For nursery enquiries, contact Hightown on 02380403536.

The trust also accepts general enquiries through a contact form, by email at admin@ilpartnership.org or by telephone on 023 8089 3132. Use the school contact for an enquiry specifically about Hightown’s nursery.