Management
Nursery responds to 'Village SOS'
Staff and children at Lincolnshire Montessori have been involved in creating a new community centre as part of a BBC One television project. Their endeavours will feature in an episode of the new series, Village SOS, which is presented by Sarah Beeny.
The six part series, which starts on 10 August, has been made with the help of Big Lottery funding and follows the stories of six villages which are given substantial cash sums to regenerate their communities.
Caistor, where one of Lincolnshire Montessori’s schools and nurseries is based, received £435,340 to transform an un-used chapel in the centre of the village into a café and arts and heritage centre.
Members of the management team at the nursery gave their time as volunteers to support the redevelopment of the former Methodist chapel. Completed in nine months, it now houses a community café, a rehoused county council library and space for arts and heritage displays.
Lincolnshire Montessori development manager, Nathan Archer, said, ‘The nursery and school children were all involved in the opening exhibition, which featured paintings and drawings from the local community. Twelve children from the nursery had their artwork displayed in the gallery, and two of them were winners in the artwork competition.
'The centre will provide many future opportunities for children to connect with the community, and we are planning a literature festival for next year.’
He added, ‘I am offering half a day a week as a board member at the centre and I continue to be very excited about the energy and enthusiasm of local volunteers on the project. Essentially the whole centre is run on a voluntary basis, and is a fantastic resource for the local community and tourists alike.’
