Nottingham's new £4 million city-wide nursery, offering the most up-to-date nursery facilities alongside a centre of excellence for training and research, has opened this week.

Nottingham Nursery School and Training Centre, next to Radford Primary School campus off Denman Street West in Radford, caters for 90 children full time. The new nursery, which opened this week replaces three stand-alone nurseries - Merrivale, Croft and Arboretum - that were based in buildings which were not in good condition. The best practice at these schools, which closed last term, will be captured at the new nursery.

Councillor David Mellen, Portfolio holder for Children's Services at Nottingham City Council, said: "The new nursery is stunning, incorporating lots of sustainable features including solar panels and grey water recycling. As well as the very best teaching and learning facilities for children, we hope it will be a beacon of excellence because we will be training our own early years practitioners to the highest standards and in new ways of working. As a city council we are ambitious to make the nursery a national centre of excellence."

Three primary schools have also been refurbished. Edna G Olds in Church Street, Lenton; Dunkirk in Marlborough Street, Dunkirk, and Mellers in Norton Street, Radford, have all been reconfigured and partially refurbished to accommodate 210 pupils from Reception to 11-year-olds in Class 6. Each has a brand new foundation stage for 30 full-time children attached that replaces outdated facilities in Victorian or wooden buildings on separate sites. Work at Mellers Primary cost £750,000, work at Dunkirk and Edna G. Olds approximately £450,000 each.

The new buildings represent an investment of £5.5 million to reshape primary education in Radford, Lenton and Dunkirk and also take account of the falling birth-rate. Three primary schools, Douglas, Unity and Lenton, closed on August 31 as part of the primary school re-organisation for the area.

These changes are part of the City Council’s ambition to create all-through primary schools across the city, offering advantages over separate infant and nursery schools. It means parents only need to apply once for a place at a primary school instead of twice, to infant and then junior schools. Staff are able to plan a more continuous curriculum and progression for pupils, any issues that may arise when infants transfer to junior school are reduced and staff have greater career development opportunities.

The review of primary education in the area began in 2005 with the objective of removing the high level of empty school places as a result of a long-term decline in the birth rate and falling pupil numbers.

Coun Mellen said: “Although we acknowledge that the school re-organisation process is a difficult one for all concerned, our best wishes go to the pupils, staff and governors at these new schools. We are delighted that council and government resources have been able to improve school buildings across these areas.”

The new pattern of schools will improve stability and sustainability and the significant reduction in unfilled pupil places will mean that resources can be targeted more effectively at teaching and learning and help improve the quality of education across the city.