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Nursery’s great team
• HOW can the council close Andover Early Years Centre? Parents, staff and kids are being deeply affected by the threat of closure hanging over our heads. It has forced us as parents to appreciate just what a precious resource we have been lucky enough to experience but we are all at a complete loss to understand why such jewel should be dismantled.
We love our nursery, it is a very special place. Birgit Voss, head of the centre, and her staff have skilfully created a haven within a tough urban environment which mutually benefits the children within and the surrounding estate.
The individual care each child enjoys is second to none. Every day is filled with special touches of encouragement, recognition and challenge. Each child is valued for the unique qualities they bring to the group. Their physical well-being is professionally well cared for but it is the standard of emotional care they receive that we as parents value so highly. It is such a rare commodity.
The staff are a fantastic team who are dedicated and caring. They have all been around for more than three years. People like working at the centre; they come and they stay, contributing to the supportive family atmosphere. The outside spaces have been landscaped to provide precious play areas, a garden and nature areas where children can find insects, see plants and flowers growing and learn about the natural environment first hand. This is vital for kids without gardens at home.
The outside space allows staff to encourage the kids to be physically active, a point not lost in the latest Ofsted report.
How many other centres in the borough can offer these facilities? We know the building design makes it difficult to maintain but it does offer an excellent layout where kids can socialise with each other. Along with the generous outside space, it is away from busy roads and brings life and laughter to the heart of the Andover estate.
Should this land be given up, never to be educational space again, considering there are so few options within a borough of rising birth rates? Tenants we have talked to, without exception, feel the nursery makes a positive contribution to the estate and want us to stay.
However, the centre is more than a building. It is the wonderful team of people who run it who make it the unique institution it is. If the building has to be sacrificed, surely the team should be relocated as a whole to a better place. We do not understand why this has not been proposed as an option.
Why is it necessary to break up a settled staff team, with all the loss and expense this entails to the borough let alone our children. Is this the only possible outcome?
A move would be so much easier for all of us – children, parents and staff. If the entire centre could be moved, Islington could be commended for its smooth handover.
We have been offered places at alternative centres and we do not wish to denigrate these establishments. Some of them have recognised high standards and good Ofsted reports. But we do not want to have to go through the disruption of settling our kids there because we know this will be difficult and traumatic and they are happy where they are. It would be so much easier for all of us if the entire centre could be moved.
All our other local nurseries are undergoing major structural changes, meaning that the number of places on offer for the next few years is reduced. For the most deprived area of the borough, the loss of Andover at this time seems to be making a bad situation worse, against a backdrop of a rising local population.
PHILIPPA JONES
(Mother of Andover nursery child)
Finsbury Park
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