Nursery World - Nursery owner awaits judgement

A nursery owner accused of assaulting a two-year-old girl in her care is braced to receive a verdict from a magistrate's court this week. Olive Rack, owner of Tresco House Day Nursery in Kettering, is charged with common assault by Northamptonshire Police. In an incident last July, she allegedly used excessive force when reprimanding the child, who had hit a baby with a toy brick.

Olive Rack, owner of Tresco House Day Nursery in Kettering, is charged with common assault by Northamptonshire Police. In an incident last July, she allegedly used excessive force when reprimanding the child, who had hit a baby with a toy brick.

The child's parents did not press charges and their daughter still attends the nursery.

Local authority education advisors Gillian Whall and Julie Medhurst were on a routine visit to Tresco Nursery on 18 July 2005 when the incident occurred. The council officials did not challenge Mrs Rack at the time but later reported what they saw to Ofsted.

Mrs Whall appeared in Daventry Magistrates Court last week as a witness for the prosecution, claiming that Mrs Rack had over-reacted to the two-year-old's actions. She said that Mrs Rack had pulled and dragged the girl across the room before forcing her into a chair, and also described Mrs Rack as poking the girl twice in the head so that it jerked back.

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