A school on Portland has confirmed it will be ending its nursery provision and cutting down on its extra-curricular clubs.

Atlantic Academy, part of Aspirations Academies Trust, has said that it will close its Atlantic Allstars and nursery services from July 24.

A public consultation was started in May after the academy announced it was planning to shut down these services.

This was originally scheduled to run until June 3 but, following discussions with staff and their trade union representative, it was agreed to extend the consultation until June 17.

However, in a letter sent out to parents and carers on June 20, the school confirmed that it could no longer justify providing these services “in consideration of the limited finances available for the running of the academy.”

The academy management said it understands that this news will be disappointing for users, but that it will held to find alternative provision: “We are looking to work alongside the other local nurseries on the island to support both transition and to build and develop relationships.

“On Wednesday, we have invited all nurseries in the local area to attend an Early Years Community Sports day at the academy and are pleased that a large number of local nurseries have taken up this offer.

“We will also be welcoming the local nurseries to Atlantic Dance Day later on in the term.”

The academy has previously stated that up to six staff members may be affected by the closure of the nursery provision, but that the nursery was making an unsustainable financial loss.

The academy blamed this on a combination of too many nursery providers on the island and a declining birth rate on Portland.

Atlantic Allstars is a breakfast and after school club that provided for children from Reception up to Year 6.

This club ran until 6pm in the evenings but now the academy has confirmed that the after school club will now only run from 3.15pm until 4.15pm.

Andrew Gostelow, Commercial Director at Aspirations, said: “The main issue with these changes is that parents who relied on the service running until six so that they could pick up their children after work will need to make other arrangements.”