Decision on an additional Nursery Unit for St Anne’s Primary School, Kingsway, Belfast

Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, has turned down a Development Proposal for the establishment of an additional nursery unit at St Anne’s Primary School, Kingsway.

Explaining the reasons for her decision, Ms Ruane commented: ”My views on the value of pre-school provision for young children are well known. Each development proposal for the establishment of new provision must, however, be carefully considered on the basis of all the information pertinent to the individual case.

“In this instance there are already sufficient places in the area for those children in their immediate pre-school year and approval of this proposal would create over provision. On that basis, I did not feel that I could endorse this proposal.”

Notes to editors:

1. On 20 November 2009 the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB) published Development Proposal (DP) number 194, which proposes to establish an additional nursery unit at St Anne’s PS, Kingsway, Belfast, with effect from 1 September 2010.
2. The school has an existing double nursery unit catering for 52 full-time places. This additional provision, if approved, would have provided a further 26 full-time places.