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Nursery finds shelter in English Rugby’s home

Provision
Nursery children who have found emergency accommodation at Twickenham Stadium were lucky enough to meet the new chairman of World Rugby, Bill Beaumont.

Mr Beaumont – a former Grand-Slam winning England captain – dropped in to meet the children and staff who have found a temporary home in the stadium’s Carling Suite following an electrical fire at their setting.

The spacious Carling Suite – which is 450 square metres – is now home to up to 60 children a day and 18 staff from Twickenham Park Day Nursery.

Following the fire on Saturday 14 May, the nursery was forced to ring round church halls and conference centres looking for emergency accommodation.

Nursery manager Guy Mitchell said, ‘The fire was in the kitchen and caused by a power surge from the mains supply in the street. Obviously it was very upsetting, the last thing you want is to be woken up and told the nursery is surrounded by fire engines.

‘But of course the most important thing was that no one was hurt, and we very quickly got a contingency plan together. One of the places we happened to call was Twickenham Stadium and very soon we got a call back from the Rugby Football Union (RFU) saying they would be very happy to offer us a suitable space.’

‘And the Carling Suite was all we could have wanted, we have about 40 to 50 children and it could probably fit in double that. So it’s worked very well, we’ve divided the space into four different areas of age groups and moved over all our equipment and furniture. We also have use of an outdoor area next to the stadium.’

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The children are also enjoying the new environment, finding the whole experience an adventure – in particular riding from the nursery to the stadium everyday on the coach and getting a chance to visit the Twickenham pitch.

As well as being the Rugby Football Union (RFU) chairman, Mr Beaumont was unanimously voted World Rugby chairman on 11 May.

‘It’s lovely to see them having fun,’ Mr Beaumont said. ‘As a father and a grandfather, I’m very aware how much working parents rely on their childcare. I’m delighted that Twickenham Stadium could welcome the nursery children and staff.’