We are proud to announce we are still an outstanding Nursery school following our most recent Ofsted inspection.  Here are some of the findings from the Ofsted report:

• Inspectors agree with staff when they say that Beechdale Nursery School is a truly magical place for children to learn and grow.

• Children are safe and happy as they enthusiastically explore the stimulating learning environment and the appealing activities on offer. Adults at Beechdale know children and their families well, always ensuring best interests and welfare are staff’s priority.

• The exceptional relationships that exist in this school create a warm and secure atmosphere where all excel.

• Whatever their starting points, children are exceptionally well supported in their learning and play by staff who are experts in understanding the needs of young children.

• Behaviour is exemplary. Children concentrate deeply, engaging and persevering with activities well. They are delighted to learn new knowledge or to further develop their skills, clapping their hands in joy. Children form strong friendships.

• The curriculum is expertly designed by leaders who have a thorough knowledge of the early years curriculum and pedagogy.

• Children with SEND are very well supported. Children’s needs are identified swiftly and with accuracy. Detailed plans are devised to support the learning and development of these children. They promote solid and manageable improvement. As a result, children with SEND make strong progress.
• All staff at Beechdale Nursery School firmly believe that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Leaders are passionate and dedicated advocates for vulnerable children and their families. Leaders ensure that relationships with families are strong, professional and supportive.

Monday 3rd March 2025 is the closing date for September 2025 admissions.  Any applications received after this date will be placed on a waiting list.

We are excited to announce that the children and staff are busy decorating a special Beechdale Nursery Christmas tree to join a selection of other local community Christmas Trees at Christ Church Middle Street Consett.  The poster below shows dates and times when the Church will be open to all to go and view the fantastic festive trees on display!

Christmas Tree Festival Poster (1)

We are excited to announce we are now an accredited Communication Friendly Setting Status.  Mrs Cornes and the whole team have trained together to achieve this accreditation, this was in working partnership with the DfE and ELKAN to raise awareness of the importance of early language and communication development.  Well done Beechdale Nursery School!  This will support out daily practice to ensure our children get the very best start in life supporting communication and language skills.

On 21^st February Government announced the Living with Covid-19, link below:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19

This step removes the remaining legal restrictions used to manage the pandemic and moves the management of the disease towards the Public Health standard approaches for managing infectious diseases.

Routine Testing

• Routine twice weekly LFD testing has ceased for staff and pupils in mainstream schools.
• Asymtomatic testing can be advised by Public Health as part a local response to an outbreak and DfE will be able to deliver tests for this purpose. 
  
  Self-Isolation and close contacts

• Whilst the legal requirement for cases to self-isolate is now removed from 24^th February, adults and children who test positive for Covid-19 will continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people.
• The national Public Health advice is that anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19 should self-isolate at home for at least 5 full days, with LFD testing starting from 5 days after the day symptoms started (or the day the test was taken if there are no symptoms), and be undertaken daily until there are two consecutive negative tests at which point self-isolation may end provided the case has no fever/high temperature. The advised self-isolation period for cases ends for all cases after 10 full days from the day following their symptom onset.
• The guidance for individuals states that children and young people with COVID-19 should not attend their education setting whilst they are infectious.
• In most cases, parents and carers will agree that a pupil or student with the key symptoms or Covid-19 should not attend given the potential risk to others. If a parent or carer insists on their child attending your school where they have a confirmed or suspected case of Covid-19, you can take the decision to refuse them if, in your reasonable judgement, it is necessary to protect others from possible infection with Covid-19. 
• There is no requirement for close contacts and household contacts of cases to self-isolate or undertake 7 days of LFD testing and this includes unvaccinated adults.  
• No contact tracing is required to take place in school and routine national contact tracing will end. 
• In addition, as rates in the community have reduced, we no longer recommend the use of face coverings in communal areas for all adults and secondary age pupils in school. 

Please see the attached letter that shares up and coming events after February half term…

parent news March April

We have updated our covid support page of our website for continued support with our Home School Learning Journey that we are on together.

We continue to use our ClassDojo page for continual updates on our current situation and we are here for you if you need.  Please do not hesitate to e mail the school if you need us for whatever reason.

On behalf of myself, our staff and governors may I wish you all a very Happy New Year. We hope that with the on-going COVID vaccine rollout programme that at some point in the coming year we will all be able to enjoy a more normal way of life.

However, you will be aware that we are still in extremely difficult circumstances due to an increasing number of Covid cases, both nationally and locally, along with lack of clarity or guidance from local and national government about how schools can respond to the increase in cases, along with the new variant of the virus.  We have also been informed that support staff are following advice from their unions and professional organisations due to concerns raised over the current situation and that they will not be available to teach full key worker groups within school.

The LA have released this statement:

Given the confusion over Government communication and guidance to schools, we believe the Secretary of State must provide clear and consistent information to schools in tier 4 that includes a move to remote learning for all pupils (excluding vulnerable children and those of key workers) and a return to school on 18th January. In the absence of changes to Government guidance DCC is clear that any decision on school closure should be made by school leaders and their Governing Bodies based on individual risk assessments at local level. Risk assessments continue to be updated and need to take account of a range of factors including local infection rates, availability of staff as well as the school’s physical environment and organisation. DCC will continue to support all of our schools based on established locally derived information along with national guidance and best practice.

As we are now in a position where we are unable to re-open fully to all children, we have made the decision to move to remote learning so that we can protect everyone in our whole school community. Due to the timings involved in receiving this information the School Leadership and Governing body have needed to make decisions rapidly. We do appreciate that receiving this news at such short notice may cause disruption to some families, and for this we can only apologise.