'No need' identified for increased pre-school provision in East Antrim, say Education Authority

Parents and guardians of target age children who had gone through Stage One of the pre-school admissions process received early notification of the outcome from the Education Authority (EA) on Thursday, April 3.

However, some children are still without an offer of a place, with East Antrim MLA, John Stewart indicating he had been contacted by “dozens of parents” who were “deeply concerned and upset that their son or daughter has not been allocated a pre-school place”.

The Ulster Unionist representative added: "Pre-school is an essential and valuable part of a child academic journey and despite an announcement of some new places in East Antrim earlier this year, the number of places across the local area has actually been reduced due to changes in the types of places available.

“This is simply not acceptable and despite having had some success getting individual cases resolved, many parents remain in limbo waiting to see if a position for their child will become available.”

DUP MLA for the area, Cheryl Brownlee outlined on social media how a number of parents had also contacted her office for assistance with the pre-school admissions process, adding that it was not ‘feasible’ for working parents to travel to other towns for a nursery place.

Carrickfergus parent, Stephanie Kennedy applied for places in six pre-school settings in her local area for her four-year-old daughter Sophia.

However, while she is on the waiting list for a number of the settings, Sophia has still not been made an offer of a place for September. “We have had to re-apply for a few places, but will not know the outcome of that until the 10th June,” Stephanie added.

The local mum said she hoped that one of the settings she had applied for would have its enrolment numbers increased by the EA.

Commenting on the concerns, a spokesperson for the EA said: “For the 2025-26 academic year, there were 771 first-preference applications for a pre-school place, with 857 places available, in the East Antrim area.

“As a result, there was no need for the Education Authority to increase provision.

“The Pupil Allocation Number (PAN) was determined in line with the enrolment figures reported as at October 2024. In certain cases, the PAN can be increased in line with identified need; however, this was not required in this particular instance. No setting received a PAN allocation which was lower than the October 2024 enrolment.

“Parents/carers of target age pre-school children are encouraged to list at least four preferences when making their application, as no guarantee can be made that they will be allocated a place in their first preference setting.”

The spokesperson added: “Pre-school admissions is a two-stage process, which is not yet completed. Stage Two opened on April 7 with parents being directed to the Pre-School Funded Places Available document on the EA website, to support them in the next stage of the process.”

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