North End's St Nicholas Preschool celebrate 'incredible' 60th anniversary

On July 20, St Nicholas Preschool in North End held party games and food for their former staff, children and committee members to toast their thriving success after opening their doors to pupils 60 years ago.

Founded in 1962, the preschool started after a group of mums wanted a place to meet up with their children.

It was decided a venue was needed for staff members to care and teach their pupils while a parent was working or away and in the same year of opening it was granted charity status as a registered play group.

Run by a committee of parents, who in turn volunteer at the early years provider, St Nicholas’ has seen three generations of staff, who brought their own children to the group serve at the city preschool.

Chairperson, Debbie Goodyear, has worked at the provider for 27 years.

She puts St Nicholas Preschool’s success down to the ‘consistency’ of the staff.

She says: ‘They're mature staff and they've been here so long we've had two or three generations of families come through our doors.

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‘We've all grown up with each other in a way.

‘The staff work together as one and they're always dedicated to what they're doing.

‘They like nothing more than to see an unsettled child grow and be nurtured and sometimes seeing them leave far more confident than when they started.’

When Debbie started at the preschool, more than 150 children were under their wing.

However, grant funding meant the required number of sessions for each child increased so numbers halved.

Today, 36 children are cared for at the preschool.

Debbie adds: ‘It's evolved greatly over the years. The main one being when Ofsted came into affect.

‘There is no pay for doing this. Over the years we've had many chair persons and committee members which entails a treasurer and everything like that.

‘It's hard nowadays to ask parents to do this because you can appreciate a lot of parents go to work now.

‘But very rarely do we have any vacancies for staff to come in because staff just stay within the working group.’