Bright Stars Pre-School Community Interest Company

Bright Stars Pre-school has provided sessional childcare and education for approximately 1100 children since opening in 2009. We continue to provide early years education for high percentages of children in receipt of income related free entitlement funding for two-year olds as well as children in receipt of early years pupil premiun.. This indicates that we continue to be in a prime position to support those children who are considered to be at a financial disadvantage to achieve better outcomes. We offer 30 hours of free (funded) childcare which is free at point of contact to parents as no consumable charges are made to parents, reducing financial barriers in parents engaging in paid employment. This year we expanded our childcare offering to include longer hours, 7:45am-6:00pm for children attending the pre-school as well as offering wrap around hours for children aged 4-11 years attended the primary school to which we are attached. We also offer healthy meals within this provision with all staff trained in food hygiene and a five-star hygiene rating from the local authority. A monitored grant was received from the DofE via the local authority to support the expansion. We continue to work with the school where we are based to ensure cohesive care and education and to aid smooth transition for children who join the school at age 4 years. We also maintain good relationships with other local schools that we feed into to support the children that transition to them. Bright Stars Pre-school also liaises with the Local family hub, undertaking integrated two-year reviews and team around the family meetings. We signpost parents to sessions at the hub and to support services such as speech and language therapists. The pre-school employs 11 staff members, mainly from the local community and also offers work placements for students undertaking childcare courses or from the local secondary school.