A PRE-SCHOOL in Durrington is up and running and proving to be a big hit with parents.

Gaenor and Martin Nokes, who already run the successful Bourne Valley Nursery School in Winterbourne Earls and Parsonage Pre-School in Amesbury, started Durrington Day Nursery in December, on the site of the former Wise Owl Day Nursery.

The nursery, which is open from 7.30am to 6pm on week days and takes children from six months old, has since gone from strength to strength, is Ofsted-registered and can offer nursery grant places as well as places for children meeting the Government’s eligibility criteria for disadvantaged two year olds.

Mrs Nokes said: “We were asked to come in to take over the preschool and it is a completely new place. It obviously takes time to build up a reputation but our aim is to build that up to the same standard as we have with Bourne Valley and Parsonage.

“We are a graduate-led setting and we are about offering the quality that parents want and listening to their feedback.”

Mrs Nokes, a former primary school teacher, has been an early years education professional since her own children were small and has been running nurseries for the past 12 years.

The pre-school offers two hot meals a day, Jolly Phonics learning and wake and shake music sessions, with flexible hours to suit parents.

One parent said: “While the location and some of the staff have remained the same everything else is changing. In less than a few months the building has been given a new lease of life, the staff and subsequently the children seem happier and more settled, the facilities for the children are improving daily and the care is a wonderful thing to see.”

At the moment the nursery is 40 per cent full, with places still available.

For more information call 01980 655228 or email admin@durringtondaynursery.co.uk.

* In the Journal of February 21, it was reported that a member of Wiltshire Council’s education department had said at a meeting of the council’s southern area planning committee that there was currently no early years education such as that provided by Durrington Day Nursery in the village.

The council has accepted that this information was incorrect.

A council spokesman said: “We apologise for this mistake. The new Durrington Day Nursery has been working hard to get everything in place to be able to take disadvantaged two-year-olds and is now in a position to do so.”