Impact1st October 2025

Working in partnership: Ark Start St Clement and St Clement and St James Primary School 

Ark Start St Clement works in partnership with St Clement and St James Primary School, a one-form entry church primary school in Holland Park, West London. The nursery opened in September 2024, serving children from 9 months for 49 weeks of the year.

Early YearsArk Start

Here Ellie Dowthwaite, Head of School at St Clement and St James, shares her experience of working with Ark Start over the last academic year. 

Ellie said, “We had a nursery at St Clement and St James before we partnered with Ark Start, but it had a falling role and only around 10 preschoolers attending. We wanted to expand our Early Years provision but didn’t have the capacity to offer wrap around care so decided to rent out space previously used as an arts studio.  

“I’ve got a background in early years education, and when that five-year lease came to an end, I was keen to bring a full nursery back on site to support parents and the local community. 

“We had several potential tenants interested, but we chose Ark Start because the values and ethos were so aligned with that of the school. Ark Start has a strong focus on child development, quality education and curriculum – as we do at St Clement and St James.” 

“More than daycare”

Ellie continued, “The Ark Start approach felt like a return to Sure Start with the range of support available for children, parents and families, all on one site. It’s about more than daycare – and that’s important given the demographic of the local community that we serve. It’s been good to partner with an organisation that understands and has experience of working with communities like ours. 

“I visited one of the Ark Start settings in Clapham to see the model in action. I formed strong relationships with Molly, Ark Start’s Director of Early Years, and Sarah, the Head of Teaching and Learning, to ensure that the curriculum from nursery through to school was aligned. For example, the way Ark Start teaches phonics matches our programme in school, so the children that eventually come through to reception will be familiar with those methods. 

“It was also important that the look and feel of the two settings were similar, and the open dialogue I had with Molly and Sarah helped us to achieve that. 

“We’ve started sharing space between the two settings, so children from the nursery can make the most of our Peter Rabbit Garden and the school playground and football pitch when they’re not in use by the school. It’s great to see the spaces getting used more, and it also makes the children more familiar with the school for when they hopefully come through to us in reception.” 

School readiness 

Ellie said, “I’m delighted that 10 of the current preschool cohort of 11 are joining St Clement and St James this September. There’s been a lot of opportunity for settling in visits over the past few weeks which will help the children make that important transition. 

“I wanted the nursery children to be able to wear school uniform in their preschool year, to help them get used to the idea of coming to school. That’s been a nice way for Ark Start to show flexibility and meet the needs of the school.” 

Give it time 

Reflecting on the partnership, Ellie said, “On the whole, setting up the partnership has been pretty seamless. I could be relatively ‘hands off’ while the provision was set up – including the building work to improve the space which was all managed by Ark Start. 

“The key learning for me has been that it takes time to set up and fully establish a new provision. Staff, parents and children need time to bed in, so you shouldn’t expect everything all at once. Setting up a whole new staff team and bringing together new children and parents is going to take a while. 

“But we’ve built strong foundations this year and Ark Start St Clement currently has 28 children on roll. And they are really developing. I can already see differences in their attention spans, their independence when learning through play and their confidence speaking to adults since the start of the year.” 

Next steps

Looking ahead, Ellie added, “Going forwards, I’m keen to build on the work we’ve done and develop more shared events, so that nursery parents can come to events in the school and vice versa. That way the nursery and school feel more like a big family. 

“I also want to keep encouraging partnerships between the two settings. For example, the music teacher that comes in to teach music at St Clement and St James has started working with the children in the nursery. Again, that’s helpful in building familiarity and consistency in our practice and ways of learning.”