Pre School Set For Eviction Post Reply

[ukpcr]

I'm not sure if anyone is aware of this, it is regarding Lochinvar Pre School. Its a small nursery that is located on the premises of Alderbrook School. Due to the Alderbrook Primary Expansion, Lochinvar Pre School has been given 3 months notice to relocate.

The plans for Alderbrook are to obtain a shared plot of land across the road and to put a nursery onsite. Their are other things getting put on the site such as flats and an underground car park and such.

The only problem is that Lochinvar Pre School (who hasn't been involved in any of the discussions or consultations and only found out just last week) have been told that even though the government has just spent over £70,000 on building repairs on the condition that the council honours a 5 years lease (which has now been retracted) and over £10,000 of the parents money went on building upgrades too which all happened just last year.

Just to give you a little background of what Lochinvar is all about:

It was founded over 40 years ago and has been in the current location for 12 years. The last OFSTED provision was "outstanding" due to the commitment and dedication of the small group of staff. Lochinvar is often referred to as "Balham's Best Kept Secret" and is a warm and friendly place for children to go to in order to start their Educational Development.

I personally don't have a problem with the Alderbrook Primary Expansion, In fact I think it is a great idea and look forward to the ever increasing level of education being given by Alderbrook thanks to the Head Teacher and her dedicated staff.

My only problem is the way that this came about. Lochivar were the last to know about these plans and have been given a very short amount of time to find and move into new premises. Alderbrook will be using the building to house a small group of children. Lochinvar currently has about 35 children on it's books this term. Another thing to consider is that Alderbrook's whole top floor is believed to be empty at the moment due to the old french school moving out of the premises.

I look after a couple of French children one of who goes to lochinvar and the other child goes to Belleville. At the moment Belleville has a porta-cabin which is located on the playground. I have no idea if this is a temporary solution for bellleville untill their new premises is complete however you wouldnt realise it's temporary as it is very well situated. Why couldn't the council and Alderbrook consider this as an optionto house their nursery children and leave Lochinvar where it is?

I'm posting today to ask your for help and support for this local nursery by doing one or all of the following:

Signing this online petition - http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/h ... rlochinvar

Phone or Email the head of Early Years (Mr Rob Nicholson) who is interested in hearing people's opinions to build a case against this decision on 0208 871 8328 or email rnicholson@wandsworth.gov.uk

We want to fight to keep this nursery open as if they don't find new premises in the three months, then the nursery is forced to leave, it's possible that this could be the end for lochinvar.

Thanks for reading

Alex

[Annabel (admin)]

thanks for the info - we will mention in the weekly email next week.

Good luck...

A

[ukpcr]

Thanks for that it is greatly appreciated


Alex

[MrsAmanda]

I've spread the word a bit by posting about it on another forum too.

[ukpcr]

Thanks MrsAmanda, everything helps

It really is a bit of a worry, it's quite possible that a new building can be found in the given time frame but it will be anything but smooth sailing. The OFSTED report will certainly change due to the trials and tribulations that such a move creates.

The children won't get the top level of care that they are used to, I'm sure anyone who has moved house recently will appreciate when your in the middle of an upheaval you can't always give your children the level of attention that they are used too.

If Lochinvar were involved in the discussion's I'm sure a more reasonable resolve could of been found. Also their would of been a much better time frame to work with to find suitable premises rather than having to take anything that is available.

It was only today I noticed the post with regards to how the first year of education can impact a child and with the high level of care that Lochinvar gives we should be fighting to ensure stuff like this doesn't happen to ANY highly rated Nursery or other Educational setting.

Our children are our future and every possible effort should be put forward in order to achieve the best for them.

Some people may think "it's only a nursery, all I can say is children have to start somewhere and I can think of no better place than Lochinvar in it's current premises.

Alex

[Tess95]

Hiya,

I am a staff member at Lochinvar and if you would like any further information please feel free to contact me. What the council are proposing is ridiculous, there has to be another solution to this! Any help would be much appreciated! Please do email or telephone Rob Nicholson at Wandsworth Early years and let him know your views.

Tess

[MGMidget]

I didn't see this get a mention in the weekly round-up email so wanted to draw it to everyone's attention again. A fab (OFSTED 'outstanding') local pre-school is threatened with eviction (through no fault of its own) at short notice, making its future uncertain. Lochinvar Pre-School Playhouse gives young children from the age of two an excellent start to their education and is an asset to the local community. It also offers free nursery places for 3 year olds (i.e. 15 hours) providing a much-needed top-up to the number of nursery places available in local schools without having to pay the high fees demanded by some of the local private nurseries.

Lochinvar's nursery provision is 'outstanding' because of the dedication of the long-standing teaching staff and the effort they and the parents have made to improve the premises from what I understand was a derelict building 12 years ago when they moved in. The premises which are quite small work well in their current form for Lochinvar with the number of children it has and the high ratio of teachers to children since they have enough teachers to supervise all the small rooms appropriately. However, would it make a good solution for Alderbrook Nursery when the council were advertising (in their 'Nursery Education in Wandsworth' brochure) a larger number of places for the Alderbrook nursery than currently allowed under the OFSTED registration for Lochinvar's premises? Also will Alderbrook provide adequate teaching staff to supervise children in several small rooms, including an upstairs room?

I can't believe this is a good solution for anyone and Alderbrook school seems to have adequate space to house its own nursery temporarily in more suitable accommodation whilst the building work across the road is carried out over the next two years. They claimed at the consultation meeting that they had a 'lovely' top floor ready and available to house the additional intake of children from 2011 so what has happened to that?! Surely this could house the nursery until the expansion work across the road is complete if they now plan to put the extra reception class where the nursery is located for the next two years? I also agree that a portacabin is an obvious alternative.

It seems to be a grave injustice that this was never consulted on. Please show your support for keeping the Lochinvar Pre-School open and encourage Alderbrook to chose more suitable accommodation for its own nursery! This will help to maintain the number of much-needed nursery places in the local area and continue to make a good-value OFSTED outstanding provision available locally.

[Eclo]

We certainly need more primary school places, and because of that I voted FOR Alderbrook School expansion. I can't remember reading or hearing anything about Lochinvar eviction in their project... otherwise, I would have voted AGAINST it!

[audrey]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread - but just in case others would search for information specifically on this preschool and wondered what the conclusion was:-
The good news is that Lochinvar preschool has not been forced to move out after all, they are still housed on the premises of Alderbrook primary school.

[mumble]

Thanks for updating
One of mine went to Lochinvar for a while and I liked it a lot would use it again.

So what exactly has happened? I assumed Alderbrook would go upstairs and only expand when that was ready. Didn't the French place shut down? Lochinvar building was up for sale wasn't it did the council buy it? I assumed Lochinvar woudl be based accross the road where the French place was-nice garden and the one thing Lochinvar lacked IMHO? Is the old school being turned into flats? who is building? how many?

thanks

[MGMidget]

Lots of questions there Mumble. The site across the road is being used for expansion of Alderbrook and there will also be flats there - plenty of details available on the Wandsworth Council website if you search planning applications. The big garden on the site across the road is unlikely to remain as it was. I understand Lochinvar leases its site in the old caretaker's building and garden next to Alderbrook school from the council so the council made a decision to allow it to stay on the current site. Other arrangements have now been made within Alderbrook school to accommodate their own nursery on their site.

[mumble]

Thanks MG I missed your reply......
Is Alderbrook going to be split across the road for good or is it just temp whilst they refurb?

[DearKitty]

Lochinvar pre school is moving to Tooting Triangle soon. I'm interested but there's no recent info online. Does anyone have revent experience or info?

[Delphine30]

It is a brilliant pre-school. My son goes 5 mornings a week and from a shy little boy, has grown in confidence thanks to them. His key worker along with other members of staff are amazing. He told me she is his best friend. They do lots of arts and crafts, follow the relevant curriculum and I could not recommend it highly enough.

[shivunderhill]

Can it be true?

Apparently so.... it seems the move to the Triangle Site is not yet a done deal for the AMAZING LOCHINVAR PRESCHOOL....which really is so sad as it would have made such a difference for us all to have access to that lovely building, shady garden... I was really looking forward to seeing it brought back into proper use again.

I loved it when it was the 1 o'clock club but after that 'relaunch' a couple of years ago (after we'd lost Jackie and her lovely colleague), we visited a couple of times but we weren't made to feel very welcome and never went back.


My twins were also Lochinvar Pre-schoolers, they loved it and still talk about their Little School and want to revisit all the time...

i think that in addition to being a very reasonably priced nursery in the AM/PM, Sandra and her team were also planning on opening it to the wider Balham commmunity too for Stay and Play sessions in the holidays and at weekends etc

So it's a shock to learn that this might now not happen... I just can't understand the logic... and I really hope that Wandsworth Counil sees sense and gives this the go ahead as I know many, many local families are relying on this actually happening.

Anyone know who is in charge of Early Years at WBC atm?

Hopefully it's not too late to get them to make the right decision about Balham's 'Best Kept Secret' -- Lochinvar Pre-School was founded over 40 years ago and we really do need to make try and ensure it still has a future here where it belongs.....


shiv underhill
mum to Oli and kitty, age 5