History of Our Nursery
Abbey Wood Nursery School has a long tradition of working in partnership with parents and the community to provide a happy, enjoyable, secure and stimulating learning environment where everyone will be inspired to do their very best.
The time line below shows how the role of the nursery has changed over the last 80 years.
The Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich proposed a sixty place nursery as part of the war-time nurseries to support parents who worked at the Woolwich Arsenal. The building, a ‘Horsa Building’ was to be a temporary structure with an air raid shelter attached and a pram shed, and more than 80 years later is still standing, with a few modifications!
- 1944 Abbey Wood Nursery School was opened.
- The nursery was organised in 3 rooms according to their ages. On the original plan there was the babies, Tweenies and Toddlers which we believe to be the under 2’s, 2-3’s and 3-4’s.
- 1946 The London County Council [LCC] was responsible for the nursery
- 1970 The Greater London Council [GLC] and the Inner London Education Authority {ILEA]
- 1987 the school moved to Greenwich Local Authority who managed nursery funding and support network
- 2002 Wraparound provision for 3&4’s was introduced. This enabled children to be in school 8am until 6pm 48 weeks of the year. (Later discontinued)
- 2004 Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative (NNI) introduced provision for 2year old.
- 2006 Abbey Wood Children’s Centre was opened.
Staff have increased from 12 to 30 in last 10 years.
The timeline shows how the nursery has grown in its role in the local community serving families in the local community by providing quality early years provision. From being a Nursery School we have been able to expand by developing a wider range of activities and services to meet the changing needs of our local community.
Going forward we are reintroducing wraparound care 8-6 term time only. We are exploring ways that continue to support our families and the community following the closure of the Children’s Centre.
We are looking forward to continuing to support children with additional needs, including us hosting the Early Communication Team each week. We are growing the number of children that we work with and anticipate having more than 120 children on role this year. We continue to be part of our community and to support our children and families.
