Barton Academy will be opening the doors to its brand new nursery accommodation later this term.

The project faced significant challenges as a direct result of the COVID pandemic and its completion was at risk.  However, through the collaboration of Academies Enterprise Trust, Barkers Associates, Torbay Council, TDA and the new contractor Mercury the project has been successfully completed and is now ready to open its doors.

The new build, which is DDA compliant and conforms to the latest recommendations for this type of provision, was jointly funded by the DfE’s Capital Nursery Fund and Academies Enterprise Trust.

Its design and independent access means that the school will now be able to provide holiday and wraparound care for up to 60 children for 52 weeks a year. The nursery is fully DDA compliant and conforms to the latest DfE guidance.

This new accommodation also means the school will no longer need to rely on the pop up provision that is currently in place to meet demand; it will enable space freed up in school to be reconfigured to provide school based family support services for the community during term time and the hall (which was used as an overspill for the nursery provision) to be fully available again to support delivery of the curriculum.  

This has been a challenging project for all parties but the benefits and exciting opportunities it provides have made it worthwhile.

Head Teacher, Chris Taylor, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be opening a new nursery for the community. The pandemic has not made this the most straightforward of projects but with strong collaboration with Torbay Council, TDA and Barker’s Associates we are very proud to be finally opening our doors for this remarkable year-round Nursery to the children in our community.”