A CALL to allow three-year-olds to attend a Templeton primary school was given the thumbs up by Pembrokeshire County Council, with just one voice of dissent.

At the March meeting of full council, members considered a report asking for the council’s Director for children and Schools to have authorisation to lower the age range to admit the three-year-olds from September.

The council agreed to proceed to the next stage of the process, which will be the publication of a statutory notice.

A request was made back in 2016 by the governing body of the federation of Templeton and Tavernspite schools for the age range extension.

There are currently 49 primary schools in the county able to admit part-time three-year-olds.

At the meeting of full council, Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning Cllr David Lloyd said the proposal would align the age range of Templeton with Tavernspite, and there was strong local support for the proposal.

He conceded there had been concerns about an existing play group at the school, Templetots, and there was a need to retain it.

Local member Cllr Elwyn Morse welcomed the report and moved its recommendation: “It allows the CP school to align with that of its federation partner Tavernspite.”

He said there were concerns raised about there being no space for Templetots, but, quoting the schools’ joint head teacher Kevin Phelps, he said this was not the case at all; the admission of three-year-olds actually leading to a small drop the number of spaces at the school.

In a statement read on behalf of Mr Phelps, Cllr Morse said any decision on the future use of the classroom occupied by Templetots would be a matter for the local authority, and a completely separate issue from that being discussed.

Council leader David Simpson said: “There’s a very excellent school in Templeton, three years ago it went in to a federation with Tavernspite; it’s been a tremendous success, all down to the success of the headmaster Kevin Phelps and his support team.”

However, Monkton councillor Pearl Llewellyn raised a personal concern.

“I cannot support this recommendation, you are talking here about babies being pushed in to school, they should be at home with their mothers, I’ve seen babies at this age going in to school in their nappies.”

The recommendation was passed by a majority vote.