Plans were approved earlier this year

A nursery has officially opened its newly expanded provision which has created more spaces.

Highbury Nursery, in Dovercourt Road, marked an exciting milestone last month as it welcomed guests to celebrate the official opening of its expanded and newly developed nursery facilities.

Highbury Primary School, Cosham, Portsmouth is celebrating new nursery expansion

Pictured: Marking the opening of the new building, Jennese Alozie - CEO of University of Chichester Academy Trust, MP Amanda Martin, Nursery manager, Rebecca Frost and Head Teacher Jo Waton

Picture: Habibur Rahman — Highbury Primary School, Cosham, Portsmouth is celebrating new nursery expansion Pictured: Marking the opening of the new building, Jennese Alozie - CEO of University of Chichester Academy Trust, MP Amanda Martin, Nursery manager, Rebecca Frost and Head Teacher Jo Waton Picture: Habibur Rahman | National World Resell

placeholder image — Highbury Primary School, Cosham, Portsmouth is celebrating new nursery expansion Pictured: Marking the opening of the new building, Jennese Alozie - CEO of University of Chichester Academy Trust, MP Amanda Martin, Nursery manager, Rebecca Frost and Head Teacher Jo Waton Picture: Habibur Rahman | National World Resell

The expansion project has been made possible through funding from the Department for Education’s Best Start in Life grant, which has supported the school’s commitment to giving children the best possible start to their education.

The grant enables parents to manage the demands of raising children while working through affordable childcare.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Amanda Martin MP, Jennese Alozie, CEO of the University of Chichester (Multi) Academy Trust, representatives from the Trust’s executive team, governors and project partners.

Nursery manager, Rebecca Frost, said: “The build has enabled us to have an extra room, an office space and a meeting room. We can now offer parents the facility to be able to bring their babies from when they get the funding when they turn nine months old.

“We’ve expanded by 17 places so we can break down our rooms into cohorts of school ages which supports transition into year R at our primary school at Highbury.”

Following the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, guests were invited to tour the nursery in small groups and hear directly from staff about the difference the new provision is already making.