About

Filton Avenue Nursery School opened on August 31st 1939, the school was closed again at 3:30 pm – the next day – on September 1st because of the outbreak of World War II.

Following a meeting with parents, the school re-opened six weeks later, and stayed open throughout the war, only closing for public holidays and lack of coal to heat the building. In those days there were four separate nursery classes with an air-raid shelter in the back garden.

‘An air-raid practice was conducted, with older children collecting their own gas masks. The children were all in the shelters in two and a half minutes and there were no tears’.

Our provision has evolved and developed over time to meet the ever-changing needs of our community. The most recent phase of our development has seen a £500,000 building and refurbishment project. We are fortunate to have a light, spacious, well-resourced building.

We were designated a Children’s Centre in December 2007 and achieved full core offer status in April 2009. As well as continuing to provide early years learning and care for 2, 3 and 4 year olds, we are now able to offer a wide range of family support services and community learning.  Childcare provision runs for 39 weeks of the year, for 9 hours a day, from 8:00 to 17:00.

The quality of our provision was judged to be ‘outstanding’ by HMI in October 2008, and OFSTED in April 2009 & 2016.

The quality of the provision is outstanding. The highly qualified staff embrace the uniqueness of each child and this is reflected in the fully-inclusive environment which values and nurtures children and their families.

OFSTED, 2009

We were again judged outstanding in 2010, 2016 and 2020. You can learn more here.