Press Releases
LITTLE learners at an Evesham school have been boosted with the opening of a new nursery building
The new venue at St Andrew’s CE First School and Nursery was completed in December and is now open for pupils to learn and develop before starting school.
It was fully funded by Worcestershire County Council via £738,000 earned from developers behind new homes across the county.
The project included the replacement of a former mobile classroom to create new permanent facility for the nursery.
Dozens of guests, including county councillors, attended the opening event at the school, to see first-hand the new venue.
Headteacher Andrea Bailey, said: “The Governing Body recognised for a number of years access to high-quality pre-school provision would be lost to the St Andrew’s community if the decaying former mobile classroom which was previously on-site was not replaced.
“We are delighted funding became available to the school and this wonderful new building will safeguard nursery places for the future.
“The already very popular nursery with its bright, vibrant and spacious rooms, outside garden and access to an extensive forest school site is a real strength to the school.
“Ofsted visited the setting recently and were very impressed with what they saw and the vision for the future, giving children the best possible start.”
Cabinet Member for Education at Worcestershire County Council, Coun Tracey Onslow said: “This completed project is one example of how we’re committed to improving educational offering and provision for children across the county.”
“The County Council recognises investing in children and young people is vital to provide them with the best start in life.
“Whilst this is delivered through a range of different providers, including maintained schools and academies, the County Council supports all schools, educational providers and early years settings to meet high quality standards. ”
The project and was brought about to provide high quality school led nursery provision to support sufficiency need within Evesham.
Early Years’ Provision at St Andrew’s CE School
A brand new, £500,000 classroom is being built at St Andrew’s School in Evesham for nursery aged children.
The new classroom will replace a temporary portacabin which has been used for a number of years by Happy Days Playgroup.
The temporary portacabin is in need of repairs and has come to the end of its normal life expectancy, so a permanent structure is being built to ensure pre-school provision can carry on at the school.
The new facility has been made possible thanks to Section 106 funding from Worcestershire County Council and Wychavon District Council.
Emma Ames, Chair of Governors at St Andrew’s, said: “We’re delighted that this brand-new classroom can now be built for the benefit of our children.
It follows years of campaigning and hard work, culminating in gaining planning approval in 2019 and funding in 2021.
Our priority is to ensure that we offer the best possible start to children in our community, which includes new bespoke facilities.
The nursery classroom will have various new resources, achieving a modern vibrant setting that is accessible to all."
The current temporary classroom will be demolished around Easter 2022 to make way for the much-needed redevelopment. Building work is expected to take around 12 weeks and is currently at the detailed design stage with the School’s consultants, PR Associates.
The School will be working closely with Happy Days Playgroup throughout the whole process. Pre-school provision will continue on site whilst the new classroom is being built.
The new classroom will allow the School to increase the number of pupils on its roll, with the intention of changing the School age range to include up to 45 two to four-year old nursery children per session. There will be opportunities for the community to consider the change of age range proposal in upcoming consultations.
Emma Ames added: “This supports a long-term vision, for children to be more easily integrated into the School when they reach Reception age.”
Kind-hearted pupils help others
GENEROUS pupils at an Evesham school have donated much-needed food to the town’s foodbank as part of their Harvest Festival.
St Andrew’s CE School in Hampton recently handed over tinned, packet and fresh food to the Caring Hands Food Bank at the Vale of Evesham Christian Centre.
Following a wonderful Harvest service at school, where all the children learnt about why we celebrate Harvest, the school ambassadors, along with headteacher Andrea Bailey, gave the food that had been generously donated by the pupils’ family and friends to Diane Bennett from Caring Hands. At the service, Diane also explained to the pupils how the donations really do make a difference to those who need support from the food bank.
“I am absolutely blown away by everyone’s generosity; the amount of donations is phenomenal,” Diane said.
“Thank you so much to all the children and their parents and carers for their continued support.
The non-perishable food will be used in the food bank and the fresh produce will be used in the drop-in diner where we provide meals for people in need in our community.”
Youngsters from Evesham’s St Andrew’s School have special visit from firefighters
YOUNGSTERS from St Andrew’s CE School in Evesham have been finding out more about the fire service with the help of some special visitors.
Firefighters Kyle Annis and Alex Atkins from Evesham Fire Station addressed the whole school in assembly, talking about their roles and giving the children some safety advice.
The pupils then asked them questions and Kyle explained to them how important smoke alarms were, telling them if there was a fire they needed to tell an adult, get out of the house, ring 999 and stay out of the house.
Abi asked if women could be firefighters and was told, Evesham already had three female firefighters while Joseph wanted to know if they attended water rescues as well.
After the assembly, Kyle and Alex spent time in year one explaining their jobs further, how fires could start, and how the youngsters could keep safe at home and at school. A school spokesperson said: “The children really learnt a lot from the visit and Kyle even set year one some homework. “The children have to learn their own address, so if there is ever an emergency, they know where they live.
“The children’s favourite part was trying on Kyle and Alex’s fire helmets.
“We want to say a big ‘thank you’ to both Kyle and Alex for coming into school.”
Parents receive goody bag as children at St Andrew’s CE School enjoy their first day
St Andrew’s CE School gave out goody bags to teary parents as they dropped off their four and five-year-old children at Hampton school.
The thoughtful goodie bag contained a teabag, a chocolate biscuit, and that all-important packet of tissues. It also had a poem attached, which read:
“Thank you for leaving your child at St Andrew’s.
“Go home, put your feet up and have a cup of tea. Tissues are inside in case you shed a tear. But there’s no need to worry, we’ll look after them here.
“Learning to read, learning to write and counting up to 20. Making new friends, singing in the rain and junk modelling aplenty.
“Before you blink they’ll be back at home with you. With tales of wonder, of excitement and of learning all things new.”
The idea was suggested by Sharon Mathers, from the school, who said: “I saw the poems and decided to put together a goody bag for the parents as it is very important to us to show them that we have a nurturing and caring ethos, and that we are approachable.
“We want to work in unison with all our parents and carers to build a strong, long-lasting partnership and make them feel assured that their children are happy, safe and learning.”
The school’s headteacher, Andrea Bailey, said: “It is the first time we have done this and we thought we would try something different.
“It’s a big thing for parents and carers when they take their children to school for the first time.
“We have had an immensely positive reaction and hopefully helped parents to relax for a few hours.”