Phew, what a week it has been. A quick update of recent events;
In the early hours of last Thursday morning we first heard about a fire in our building. We were devastated when we realised the extent of the damage and how much it had affected the nursery, mainly due to water damage and flooding. Our first concern was for our families, who were let down as we were forced to close for 2 days, and for our staff team and the loss of all their hard work making the rooms homely and exciting for the children.
On the Friday we contacted Manor CE Academy, a secondary school just down the road who very generously agreed to accommodate the children for the whole of last week, over the half term holiday.
Since then we have been working day and night to return the nursery to spick-and-span, and what a week it has been.
We have been absolutely blown away by the generosity of the community, parents of children at the nursery, local tradesmen, and our own friends and family, who have worked full days and well into the evenings, lifting and shifting, cleaning and painting & decorating to get things to even better than they were before. We estimate that a whopping 500+ man-hours have gone into renovating the nursery this week!
We have deep-cleaned and re-decorated all corridors and entrance ways, two Ladybirds Rooms, the Caterpillars Room, children’s toilets, staff rooms, store rooms, Baby Group space and the buggy/welly park. We have also created a brand new Pre-School, with a covered outdoor play area, an entrance porch, a kitchenette, and a baking/cooking area linked to the main nursery kitchens.
Despite only two rooms having actually suffered damage by the fire, we have gone the whole hog – almost all walls, surfaces and floors have been deep cleaned, celing tiles replaced, floors and carpets replaced, new furniture bought, and toys, equipment and resources sorted through and sterilised.
I cannot tell you how proud we are of the whole team for all the hard work they have put in over last weekend and this (as well as looking after all the children at Manor School midweek), and how thankful we are to those from the community who have given up precious time out of their busy week to help us restore everything to as-good-as-new.
Just over a week after the fire, we are so pleased to be welcoming families back into our usual premises. The children are saying it is like ‘coming home!’.
The future looks bright for Muddy Boots!
With special thanks to:
Mel, Rachel and our fantastic staff team, Richard Quinn, Stephen Cooke, Alex Hunt and the other parents who came to volunteer, Lewis Russell, and the 20+ volunteers from United York Church. Also to all our friends and family who fed us and babysat for us this week!
Also a huge thank you to Manor CE Academy, Copmanthorpe OOSC, Rainbows Pre-School, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, local childminders who donated books, and CYC Property Services and all the plumbers, electricians, joiners, alarm specialists and other tradesmen who got the building up and running again so quickly for us.
We are so grateful to everyone who helped out and could not have done it without you!
A big THANK YOU again,
Andy & Anna Nimmo
Some press articles that may be of interest:
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11788563.Arson_attack_at_old_York_school___Manhunt_underway___6_25pm_UPDATE/
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11792768.Nursery_at_arson_hit_school_could_reopen_within_days/
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11794842.Nursery_hit_by_water_damage_during_fire_to_re_open_on_Monday_in_temporary_accommodation/
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11808382.Nursery_is_renovated_following_arson_attack/