LAWN Primary has marked an exciting new chapter in its history by joining with the adjacent nursery in hope of offering children a smoother transition into school.

The move has been welcomed by parents with open arms and on Thursday, the school was able to officially mark the occasion with a cake and ribbon cutting ceremony.

The idea of joining the nursery with the school came about following the introduction of the 30 free hours of childcare scheme last year.

Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Children's Services and School Attainment Fionuala Foley along with council leader David Renard had the honours of declaring the new partnership – something that headteacher Kelly James was thrilled about.

“It has taken a long time to get to this stage because we wanted to make sure that there was an effective transition,” she said. “The preschool is rated good by Ofsted and we are as well so we wanted to acknowledge that by bringing them across so we know one another strengths and combining them to become a lot more powerful. We think we will be stronger together as one.

“Children are learning about routines at this age and so when they come to the school, they will be used to the way learning works and they can apply what they already know, making better and quicker progress.

“It is about familiarity and confidence in an environment they are used to and whilst there might be some barriers there, we have done our best to remove some like getting to know the teachers, having the same environment and way of doing things.”

As well as welcoming more children on roll, the nursery has extended its opening hours to match what the school provides for children.

There are also plans in the pipeline to expand over the next couple of years.

Kelly added: “It is other little things that make a difference. This week as a whole school and nursery will be having Christmas lunch and the nursery have never had that before. We wanted them to be included and I think it is absolutely brilliant.

“This definitely marks a new chapter in the school’s history. For a long time, we have been thinking of how to improve further and now we have joined, we think we can give the children the best possible start in life which will continue on.”

Steven Hutton, chairman of the governors added: “We always felt that if we could work more closely with the nursery, we could align our teaching methods like reading so that there is consistency when they get to school.

“We started with a discussion with staff and parents about their thoughts and fears and it went to a vote of the parents who said they would like the nursery to become part of the school and it went from there.”