TWENTY-FIVE years of play and learning has been celebrated by staff, parents, children at Upton Churchroom Playgroup.

The end-of-term Christmas party last Thursday (December 13) marking the group's anniversary at the Old Street venue.

Originally a meeting place for mothers with their children, the group has grown into a service that caters for 32 pre-school age children, who attend for up to four meetings a week. It is now a registered charity, employing five staff, and recently joined the Pre-school Learning Alliance.

Governing committee chairman Andrew Gregory paid tribute to the hard work of everyone involved but warned that standards had to be kept up.

"Two years ago the group received an excellent Ofsted report and continues to pass social services inspections with flying colours," he said. "However, now that Ofsted have taken over full responsibility for early years education, the group faces the new challenge of ensuring it can meet all the new requirements."

l Celebrating the group's birthday are (back, from left) Peter Moore, past supervisor Grace Parsons, Kaite Travers, Chloe Prince, current playleader Sally Dodd, (front, from left) Alan Clough, Kevin Moore and Emily Vaughan-Davis.

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