News

Old Station wins fifth army contract

Childcare group the Old Station Nursery has won its fifth contract with the Ministry of Defence, offering childcare to military families.

The group will be opening a new purpose-built 56-place nursery at Imjin Barracks at Innsworth near Gloucester.

Imjin Barracks is the new home for NATO's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), who are being transferred from Germany.

The nursery will be the 13th setting for the group, which was set up by managing director Sarah Steel in 2002.

The Old Station Nursery will be taking bookings from the beginning of April and expects the Imjin Barracks nursery to open on 1 September.

Ms Steel said that running the new setting would be an interesting challenge.

'The ARRC is multi-national and I have already been in touch by e-mail with a whole host of different nationalities, from Hungarians and Poles to Italians, Germans and Americans,' she said.

'We will have to make sure that our literature is available in all the different languages, and we will have to see whether any of the children need any extra language support. I also have to explain to parents all about the free early years entitlement.'

The Old Station Nursery already runs nurseries at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, RAF Cottesmore in Rutland and RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.

Ms Steel said, 'Sometimes they say "you don't understand what we are going through". But I do. I used to work in the army and I was an army wife, so I know what many of them are going through.

'We have to look at their needs and be more flexible. So if the father is going away to Afghanistan for six months, we will give the family extra support and take lots of photos of his daughter or son which can be e-mailed to him, and offer the child extra sessions if they need them.

'We also have to be there to offer support if there is an incident in Afghanistan. It can affect our staff as well, as we employ some from the base.'