Primary education information for parents Pre-school education

Published: 2 September 2024

Nursery schools and classes

Wirral has three Early Years Centres – Somerville Nursery School, Ganneys Meadow Early Years and Leasowe Nursery School and Family Centre. There are also 52 nursery classes attached to primary schools. Details of the Early Years Centres are given in the schools list further down this webpage. Primary schools with a nursery class are shown in the Wirral Primary Schools section.

If you want your child to go to an Early Years Centre or nursery class, please contact the headteacher. Your child will normally be offered five part-time sessions. He or she will start in the term after your child’s third birthday. Some centres offer extended sessions, which you must pay for.

If your child has a place in a nursery class in a school, this does not mean that they will automatically get a place in the Foundation 2 class. Nursery classes take pupils from a wider area than the school zone or the parish area for voluntary-aided schools.

Our admissions policy for Early Years Centres and nursery classes in community and voluntary-controlled schools is as follows:

  • If there are enough places available, your child will be offered a place in the centre or class of your choice.
  • If there are not enough places available in a school for all the children who have applied, the school’s governing body will decide which children to accept in line with the following guidelines:

Four-year-olds

  • The school’s governing body will give priority to children who will become four during the coming academic year 2024/2025.
  • If there are more of those children than there are places available, they will then give priority to children with a particular medical reason for going to their school. This is important if the school has special facilities, for example if the school has special equipment for a child with a physical or sensory disability.
  • If there are still too many children eligible for the school, the governing body will reject the applications from parents who live in the catchment area of another school with a nursery class.
  • If there are then enough places for the remaining children, they will offer all the children places.
  • But if not, they will offer places first to the children who live nearest to the school (the distance from home to school is measured by the shortest available walking route).
  • Finally, if there are any places left, the governing body will offer them to children living in the catchment area of another school who live nearest to the school. Some schools may have a different policy. Please contact the school you are interested in.

Three-year-olds

If there are places left after all the four-year-olds have been offered a place, the governing body will offer a place to children who become three during the academic year 2024/2025 based on the following priorities.

  • Children with special educational needs which have been identified through a statutory assessment.
  • Children whose parents receive Income Support, Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Disability Living Allowance or Working Tax Credit.
  • Children whose birthday falls between 1 September and 31 December.
  • Children whose birthday falls between 1 January and 31 March.
  • Children whose birthday falls between 1 April and 31 August.

If the priorities have to be decided within any category, the governing body will always give priority to the children who live nearest measured by the shortest available walking route.