We have written to the authority expressing our concerns. We are also lobbying our MP and the Minister for Children.
Children's centres are intended to provide services for nought to five-year-olds and their families and one would expect them to be based in maintained nursery schools. The expertise in providing services for this age lies in nursery schools, not primary schools. Kendal Nursery School is an excellent centre, widely acknowledged throughout the district and confirmed by the latest Ofsted inspection. We believe that the interests of children and their families would best be served by a centre based there.
There is a danger that establishing children's centre facilities elsewhere will be seen as a vote of no confidence in us. This is particularly worrying since there are unfounded rumours circulating that the nursery school is scheduled for closure. The siting of a children's centre elsewhere is likely to fuel these rumours and affect our enrolment, maybe to the extent of closure.
A children's centre designed to enhance services to support children and their families could have the opposite effect. It could result in the closure of a centre of acknowledged excellence and expertise and, in the long term, have a disastrous effect on young children's services. Kendal Nursery School is not simply a nursery school, it is a training institution and exemplar of best practice. Its loss would have a detrimental effect on early years education in the district.
