The Kidsunlimited nursery chain, which has six nurseries in the affected area, operated an emergency escalation procedure as soon as the news of the explosions came. Marketing director Jason Myers said, 'An emergency team gathered in the central office and opened up extra phone lines so communication could be maintained with the nurseries and parents.
'We immediately phoned all the nurseries to make sure that security checks were conducted in all the buildings and that children were kept indoors. We also individually rang all the parents, around 500, to reassure them that their children were safe and to agree pick-up procedures. Provision was put in place to keep children overnight if needed, but all children managed to get home, the last being collected at around 7.30pm. Some parents were distressed, but staff were in place to greet and calm them when they arrived.'
Mr Myers added, 'Unfortunately some of our staff and parents were trapped when the bombs went off, but thankfully only a couple of people suffered minor injuries. We are pleased with our system and all the staff worked together fabulously.'
Daisies City Child was alerted to the emergency situation by the City of London Police pager alert system the nursery subscribes to. Nursery manager Jenny Dicks said, 'We were quickly notified of the incident and confident that the police knew where we were and would contact us if we needed to evacuate the building. The Corporation of London Children's Information Service called to offer their help if we had needed to evacuate.
'The bombs went off very near to us, but thankfully we were nicely cocooned in the nursery. The children were oblivious to the emergency and we were able to continue as normal.'
Beginnings Early Childhood Centre was also in close proximity to the attacks. Centre director Miri Lawrence closed the nursery the following day but opened as usual after the weekend. She said, 'It was absolutely hideous. The children arrived as normal but then the news started to filter in that bombs were going off.
'Thankfully the staff were really good and the children were not aware that an emergency was happening. We phoned parents to reassure them we would stay with the children for as long as was needed. But we did not have to open late because most parents live or work locally. Many parents said they wished they hadn't sent their children to nursery that morning. Everyone felt a lot safer to be staying at home.'
Central London childminder Claire Pomeroy returned from an outing with the children to find frantic phone calls coming from parents. She said, 'I was able to reassure them that everything was fine and we were not directly affected by the bombs. One parent was not allowed out of her building and I was able to let her know that I could care for her child for as long as possible.'
Susan Hay, chairman of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, visited its eight London nurseries the day after the attacks to personally thank staff for their 'stoicism and support'.
The nursery group drew on the experiences of its American counterparts during the September 2001 terrorist attacks to ensure emergency procedures were followed. A booklet, What Happened to the World?, written in response to those attacks, will be reissued to nurseries.
Ms Hay said, 'We are conscious that the full effect is not known yet. Staff need to be sensitive to any responses from children. The booklet will help staff and parents understand and support children's emotional reactions.
There are suggestions for talking about the issues and answering questions depending on the children's ages.'
The booklet can be download- ed at www.brighthorizons.com.