Not many nurseries can say they were officially opened by an army commander. But Old Station Nursery at Innsworth in Gloucestershire is no ordinary nursery, as it cares for the children of the multinational troops that make up the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC).
Lieutenant General Richard Shirreff officially opened the 64-place nursery in September 2010 after the troops from Nato relocated from Germany to Imjin Barracks in Gloucestershire.
About three-quarters of the children who attend are from military families, while the rest come from the surrounding area.
For manager Tracey Wilce and her team, caring for such a multicultural group of children - including Italian, German, French, Polish, Czech, Greek and Fijian - has been 'interesting and a learning curve'.
The ARRC is Nato's on-call land response force, so at any point the ARRC can be called on for rapid deployment to the world's trouble spots, whether for a natural disaster or a humanitarian crisis.
This means staff have to keep a close eye on what is happening to the child's family. 'For example, if the father has been deployed to Afghanistan we will give extra support if the child needs it,' says Ms Wilce.
ACQUIRING ENGLISH
Helping children and parents to acquire English is a big part of the nursery's work. 'Some children have no English when they start, so we use gesturing or pictures to communicate. Where mothers also have no English they are encouraged to take books home and share them with their husbands. Many follow courses in English when their children are at the nursery.'
Ms Wilce explains that the nursery accesses local services to help them and in some cases will use translators or other parents who are more bilingual to help translate.
'We know a little French and German, but we don't have the wide range of languages to communicate properly with every parent and child.'
The Old Station is proud of its Innsworth nursery for being eco-friendly. It was built by the MoD and boasts a roof garden, a wind turbine which generates small amounts of electricity, and solar panels.
The north side of the building has small windows to minimise heat loss and the south side has larger windows to maximise heat from the sun. Rainwater is also collected and used to flush the children's toilets, and the building has large doors that can be opened up completely, which is great for free flow.
Ms Wilce says, 'Having this new building to work in is lovely. The whole team can also see benefits to working in this environment. The underfloor heating means that we don't have to worry about radiator covers and it is quite easy to control the temperature. Also, the fact that our taps are sensor-controlled encourages the children's independence, when hand washing.'
Babies love to watch the wind turbine go around and Ms Wilce reports that these features are always of interest to prospective parents.
'We provide a loving, caring environment here,' she says. 'Places are filling up fast and in the future we may look at running holiday clubs for school children.
'I love being the manager, but I do like to be hands-on. I got into childcare because I love working with children and there is always something they do or say that makes you smile every day.'
The nursery's work was so appreciated by a group of German parents recently, that they gave it a bench as a thank you.
