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Ronald Tree Nursery School

Ronald Tree Nursery School

History

Ronald Tree Nursery School is the oldest maintained nursery school in Northamptonshire and was given to the people of Kettering in 1934 by Mr Ronald Tree, the then Member of Parliament for Market Harborough. Ronald Tree gave a donation of £1000 to help support children in the then new Avondale Estate by providing a nursery school. Staff are very proud of this heritage and continue to follow the ethos of supporting and educating young children in the north of Kettering. Over the last 88 years thousands of children have passed through our doors, and many of them have brought their children and grandchildren to us too.

In 2007 we became an integrated Sure Start Children's Centre and Nursery School, but from 1 August 2014 Northamptonshire County Council brought all children's centre services in Kettering together at the Montagu Street Children's Centre.

However, this enabled Ronald Tree Nursery School the space to extend the age range of the children we take to include funded two-year-olds and from 2017 to offer up to 30 hours free integrated education and childcare for eligible working parents. We make no charge for our funded places and where children attend for more than their funded hours we charge to cover our costs only, just as Ronald Tree would have wanted us to do.