We are delighted with the progress the IDEAL Alliance is making towards its goals and aspirations for young people and the community. In order to improve our impact further, the governors have made some key leadership changes.

From September 2025, Mrs Heidi Price will work as the CEO across the whole alliance and dedicate her time to working strategically to support all leaders and communities. Mrs Carla Milford will take up the role of Interim Head of School from Yealmpstone Farm Primary School and Miss Sophie Burns will take up the role of Interim Assistant Head. Mrs Caroline Watts will continue to be the Head of School for the Plymouth Nursery School Federation, supported by Mr Steve Martin and Mrs Emma Forsyth. Mrs Kady Steele will continue to be Early Years Stronger Practice Hub Lead and be supported by Mrs Lucie Hulbert, who will return to the Project Manager role following the release of three years' extra funding for the project. 

We are excited to build on the achievements of last year, which saw the schools and hub achieving strong, positive outcomes in all areas. Celebrating last year's achievements, here are a few key changes we made:

Ham Drive Nursery & Day Care: We repurposed the Children's Centre and opened an under twos provision for the Ham area, offering fifteen extra places. We are delighted to announce that this is now completely full.

Plym Bridge Nursery & Daycare: We repurposed the Children's Centre and opened further under twos provision for the Estover area, offering fifteen extra places. We are delighted to announce that this is now completely full.

Bright Stars Nursery: We redeveloped our existing provision and opened provision for under twos in the Plympton area, offering a further six spaces. This is also completely full. 

Yealmpstone Farm Primary School: We have achieved very positive outcomes for all of our pupils who reached key milestones, which indicates our systems are enabling everyone to thrive. We were above national outcomes in all areas and year groups.

We have opened 'The Nest' which is designed to support children in foundation and KS1 with SEND needs so that they receive bespoke support and care to enable them to thrive. We have also received targeted funding to provide a teacher led base for our KS2 children with SEND. This means that all children can access the curriculum and make progress. 

Early Years Southwest Stronger Practice Hub: We have been allocated a further three years of funding and our early support can now include the foundation stage in schools. Our team have focussed on providing training and support for nurseries and childminders across the south-west region. We are currently enroling settings to be part of the Maths Champions project and working alongside the RISE team to offer bespoke support and training for early years.  

Early Years Speech & Language Team: We continue to offer support and advice to settings and families in order to ensure that children thrive in enabling environments to promote the development of speech and language.