Our History
The Nursery School was originally built as a war time day nursery by Chelmsford Borough Council.
The Nursery was built for the children of mothers engaged in war work at the local factory.
In April 1946, the nursery was closed and taken over by Essex County Council. The Nursery became known as ‘London Road Nursery School’ in September 1946 with Miss Lewis as ‘Acting Head’. The school log book records that there were 40 children on roll. The children attended all day and had a sleep after lunch often on canvas beds in the garden!
In 1953 Miss Florence Hardwick was appointed Head Teacher and under her headship, the system of allowing pupils free flow access to all areas was implemented. By 1977 the whole nursery became part-time and only the older children (4 ½ -5 year olds) stayed for lunch.
Miss Hardwick retired in December 1978 and Mrs Millman took the post in January 1979. In 1982 a Mother and Toddler group was established. In 1984 the starting age for pupils was changed from 2 years to 3 ½ years. Mrs Millman retired in 1995 and the headship went to Mrs Annie Tann. The School relocated to its new premises at Great Baddow in 1997 and changed its name to Woodcroft Nursery School.
Mrs Annie Tann retired in 2004 and Mrs Jackie Sullivan was appointed Head Teacher. Building work was undertaken in 2005/06 to include a new class room, extra room and corridor. This work was carried out so that ‘Little Woodcroft’ could be established in 2007, to offer 2.5 hour sessions for 2 -3 year olds.
Mrs Jackie Sullivan retired in 2007 and her successor Mrs Helen Roberts retired in 2016. Mrs Sally Brisley was appointed in 2016 and retired in 2021.
Our current Headteacher is Mrs Ferliene Willis who was appointed in September 2021. Class names were changed from Moon Class to Squirrels Class, Clouds Class to Hedgehogs Class and Stars Class to Butterflies Class.
Following successful inclusion bid funding, building work was undertaken in Summer 2024 to adapt the current staff room and toilets into toilets for the children accessible directly from the classroom, an accessible toilet and baby changing for visitors and an accessible toilet and shower for our enhanced provision room, established in January 2022, Butterflies Class. The current children's toilets were adapted into staff toilets, storage and an enclosed utility area.
In September 2025, a Service Level Agreement from the Local Authority, officially supported the delivery of a Resourced Provision in Butterflies Class supporting children with Social Communication needs.
As part of our 80th birthday celebrations, Woodcroft Nursery School welcomed a new school logo representing the big and little trees of Little Woodcroft and Big Woodcroft for growth and learning, a butterfly, squirrels and hedgehogs for our class names and a sunflower to symbolise staff support, loyalty and dedication. As part of our 80th celebrations, new outdoor play equipment was installed in Big Woodcroft and Butterflies gardens and Little Woodcroft received an internal refurbishment.
