Nurseries could be set up at six Newport primary schools

The city is looking to set up nursery schools at Clytha, Glasllwch, High Cross, Mount Pleasant and Malpas Park primary schools and at St Michael’s RC Primary School following a consultation held in February and March.

No objections to any of the six proposals was received – the council said responses from governors, staff and parents welcomed the proposals for new nursery schools on primary school sites. It is now up to Labour cabinet member for education Bob Poole to move to the next stage and issue a statutory notice indicating the changes.

The notice will give residents and others a month to object before the council makes a final decision.

A council report into the issue said “overall responses have highlighted the fact that governors, staff and parents welcomed each of the proposals for new nursery schools on their primary school sites.

“It is the opinion of the education officers that this should support the decision to now move to the statutory notice stage of the process for each of those proposals,” it added.

One officer commented in the report that the establishment of six nursery classes would lead to “increased pupil numbers and potentially mean an increase of resource is required to deliver nursery provision at these sites. If additional resource is required, the governing bodies of these schools will be asked to give prior consideration to employees on the council’s redeployment list prior to any external advert,” the report said.

Although there are six individual proposals relating to the named schools, just one statutory notice will be published covering them all.

The notice will give residents and others a month to object before the council makes a final decision.

A decision is likely to be taken in the coming weeks.