Little Crickets Pre-school will continue to keep their doors open in Gosport

Little Crickets Pre-school was under a lot of pressure when the founders, Leigh Dunlop and Zoe St John, had to face the prospect of closing their doors – less than a year after opening.

The duo have been overwhelmed at the support after The News produced an article outlining another potential loss in the community, and they can now see a future ahead of them after increased interest.

Leigh said: ‘We got lots and lots of enquiries so we are now filling up quite quickly and it is now getting to the point that if people do want a space with us they will have to enquire in advance.

‘We are not fully booked by any means but we aren’t going to close now so the response from the community has been lovely and heart warming because everybody saw the article and we have had people ringing up and saying they don’t want us to close because they want to send their children here.’

The pre-school, which is based in The Empower Centre, Gosport, is now striving towards making their mark in the local community and they have been working towards obtaining their Green Flag eco accreditation, which is a year’s worth of work.

Now that Leigh and Zoe have a steady stream of enquiries, they are planning big things including starting a fundraiser to raise £10,000 so they can turn the ‘waste land’ behind the church into a communal garden that will have wheelchair access to a SEN garden that will be free for everyone in the community to enjoy.

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Leigh added: ‘It just needs some TLC and to be made safe and there will be a sensory garden.

‘We want to be able to give back to the community and the church have been really accommodating for this idea that we have.’

The pre-school are also working with the local community by partnering up with a residential home in Botley to help them nurture their garden areas, as well as establishing a good connection with the elderly in the area.

The children will be taken to the care home to help renovate their planters, flower beds and generally help to make the area around the home beautiful so that the residents can enjoy their home.

Leigh said that this is also a nice thing for the people at the home to look forward to.

This area of the children’s learning is part of the pre-school’s work on global citizenship, where they will also be teaching the children about different languages around the world as well as different cultures.

She added: ‘It is very much about pledging ourselves to the community so there are so many things that we can now put into action and give back to the community as well as making it a beautiful place for everyone to live.

‘We have had ten visits and enquiries in the last two weeks and previously to that we had six in the last four months.’