Kesh Community Nursery
 

Kesh Community Nursery is located in the grounds of Kesh Primary School. 

We have an intake capacity of 26 pupils.  A part-time nursery, we open our doors for supervision from 8.45am with the official nursery day beginning at 9.15am until 11.45am.  

We take great pride in our nursery where each child is valued and helped to reach their full potential.

Please find two short videos at the end of this webpage including a virtual tour of the nursery (December 2023) and a slideshow of our most important people…our children 🌟

As stated in our principal, Mr Blaine Stewart's, welcome in our prospectus: 

'In Kesh Primary School and Community Nursery, we pride ourselves in providing a caring, family atmosphere in which children are comfortable and happy. It is the belief of all our staff that a happy child, confident and safe, learns much more readily.  In this caring environment, our pupils are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and disposition to be strong, productive members of their community who contribute in a positive and creative way. We have high expectations for ourselves and our pupils and a determination that each child will achieve his or her full potential. Our school is continually responding and adapting to offer the highest quality of education for your children. We have a very dedicated, enthusiastic, and highly qualified staff, who see their role very much as a partnership with you and your child.

As a learning community we place great importance upon the uniqueness of each person here and the contribution which we can all make.  For this reason, we offer educational provision far beyond that of the staples of Literacy and Numeracy.  The Northern Ireland Primary and Pre-school Curricula are both delivered in their entirety throughout our school.  Every child, regardless of their individual strengths and weaknesses should be given opportunities to succeed.  It is only through our continued commitment to ‘Achieving and Caring’ that we will continue to succeed, following our pre-school commitment to ‘Nurture and Flourish.’

Please find a copy of this year's prospectus below which will give you a greater view

into the life of our school and nursery. 

You would all be most welcome to join us at this year's Open Evening on Thursday 7th December 2023 at 5.45pm in the nursery setting and then Mr Stewart will address all parents in the assembly hall of the main school building at 6.15pm.  If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact school at 02868631441

or email wread315@c2ken.net

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA SEPTEMBER 2024

Admissions Criteria

A timetable of pre-school admissions procedures setting out the dates by which an application is to be submitted is available at www.eani.org.uk/admissions under ‘Pre-School Admissions’. During the admissions procedure when applying the criteria punctual applications will be considered before late applications are considered.

The application procedure opens on 9 January 2024 at 12noon (GMT) and an application submitted by the closing date of 26 January 2024 at 12noon (GMT) will be treated as a punctual application. An application received after 12noon (GMT) on 26 January 2024 will be treated as a late application.

As the pre-school admissions procedure is in two stages the timetable also specifies the relevant dates at Stage 2 which will determine if an application is to be considered as punctual or late.

Admissions criteria to be used in the event of the school being oversubscribed with applications for available places.

Statutory Criteria

1. Children from socially disadvantaged circumstances in their final pre-school year who were born:
   • on or between 2 July 2020 and 1 July 2021 (inclusive) and whose parents have not exercised their right to defer their child’s entry to primary school; or,
   • on or between 1 April 2020 and 1 July 2020 (inclusive) or were due to be born on or between those dates but were born earlier; and,
     • have not attended or are not currently attending a funded pre-school setting under the Pre-School Education Programme as a target aged child; and,
     • that child’s parent has completed a request to defer their child starting P1 until September 2025.

Note: Children from ‘socially disadvantaged circumstances’ means a child whose parent has an entitlement to (i) Income Support, or (ii) Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, or (iii) Income related Employment and Support Allowance, or (iv) Universal Credit. When parents apply for places for their child on this basis they must provide Benefit Verification to confirm that they have an entitlement. The application procedure for Pre-School will outline how Benefit Verification can be submitted.

1. Children not from socially disadvantaged circumstances (as defined above) who are in their final pre-school year (as defined by Criterion 1).

Admissions Sub-Criteria

In the event of oversubscription within any of the above statutory criteria, the following sub-criteria will be applied

1. Children who currently attend Kesh Community Nursery or have a sibling, with one or both parents in common, or foster/adopted brothers or sisters who currently attend Kesh Primary School.
2. Children who at the date of their application are the eldest child of the family to be eligible to apply for admission to Kesh Community Nursery School e.g. twins or multiple births will be treated as joint eldest. In cases where the child is more than 7 years younger than their next nearest sibling, the child will be treated as eldest and in cases where the eldest sibling is not eligible to attend mainstream school.

In the event of oversubscription in the last criterion which can be applied, then selection for all places remaining in this category will be on the basis of the initial letter of the surname as per the birth certificate, in the order set out below: -

J G S L Mac M W D K N C Z Y A P H Mc X Q F O E B R T I V U

The order was determined by a randomised selection of letters carried out by the governors of the school at a meeting on 2/11/2023.

In the event of surnames beginning with the same letter the subsequent letters of the surnames will be used in alphabetical order. In the event of 2 identical surnames the alphabetical order of the initials of the forenames as per the birth certificate will be used.

It is important that parent(s)/guardian(s), when submitting the application form, provide all relevant supporting information and written evidence that may be needed as per the published admissions criteria including the child’s birth certificate.

Non-statutory criteria

Note: Applications falling under Criterion 3 are processed only during Stage 2 of the admissions process, after final pre- school year (Statutory 1 and 2) applications.

1. Children who were born:
   • on or between 1 April 2020 - 1 July 2020 (inclusive), or were due to be born on or between those dates but were born earlier; and,
     • and have attended or are currently attending a funded pre-school setting under the Pre-School Education Programme as a target aged (not penultimate aged) child; and,
     • that child’s parent has completed a request to defer their child starting P1, or
   • on or between 2 July 2021 and 1 July 2022 (inclusive); or,
   • on or between 1 April 2021 and 1 July 2021 (inclusive) or were due to be born on or between those dates but were born earlier; and that child’s parent has completed a request to defer their child starting P1 until September 2026.

Tie Breaker – Non Statutory Criterion 3

Children within Criterion 3 will be selected in Chronological Order of Age – eldest child first. In the event of two or more children having the same DOB the above random selection of letters will be used.

Duty to Verify

The Board of Governors reserves the right to require such supplementary evidence as it may determine to support or verify information on any applicant’s application form.

If the requested evidence is not provided to the Board of Governors by the deadline given, this will result in the withdrawal of an offer of a place. Similarly, if information is supplied which appears to be false or misleading in any material way, the offer of a place will be withdrawn.

Waiting List Policy

Should a vacancy arise after 11 June 2024, all applications for admission to nursery that were initially refused, new applications, late applications and applications where new information has been provided will be treated equally and the published criteria applied. The waiting list will be in place until the end of the academic year.

The school will contact you in writing if your child gains a place in the school by this method. Your child’s name will be automatically added to the list. Please contact the school if you wish for your child’s name to be removed from the list.