Church Pre-school to close after 25 years.

The highly popular St John the Baptist Pre-school in Whitwick is to close at the end of the present term.

The Pre-school has been run by a voluntary committee for the past several years, and employs 9 part time professional staff. “It has gradually become impossible for a Pre-school like ours to be managed by a committee of volunteers. The experience of the senior staff and management committee members over the past few years has been of an overwhelming tide of government regulation, in respect of pre-school education, employment law, health and safety requirements and staff training. Little of this has been accompanied by the funding needed to implement it.”

  "Our projected funding by the County Council is due to be reduced from April next year, which would exacerbate an already fragile financial situation and be detrimental in that we could no longer continue to give the young children the high standard of care that we would wish to. "  We are aware of further demands looming from OFSTED and the County Council, which at this time we will be unable to meet. Everyone concerned is extremely shocked and saddened by the news.”

Many possible options for continuing have been researched and debated, but the reluctant conclusion was that closure was inevitable.

The Management Committee paid tribute to the high quality and commitment of the staff team under manager Angela Stanton.