Learning Tree Pre School has finally opened the doors of its new home in the Pinehurst Circle, after suffering a series of delays.

The pre-school for two to four-year olds welcomed tots to the new term after moving into the newly refurbished Old Library on Pinehurst Road.

“We’re really excited to be opening,” said Elaine Tucker, owner and manager of the nursery which was based at Rodbourne Cheney Primary school for 14 years.

“It’s just lovely to be open now. Sitting in my office I can hear all the children singing and having a good time. It’s fabulous,” she added.

Yesterday’s opening was delayed by nearly two weeks because of glitches in the refurbishments as well as a hold up in obtaining the nursery’s Ofsted registration.

“The move has been quite a difficult process. We’ve had lots of hiccups along the way and we had to do lots more work on the building than we ever thought we would have to,” said Elaine.

The Old Library has been extensively refurbished for the nursery, having originally been built as a church before becoming a library and later hosting the OneStop store following a fire at its original premises.

“We’ve really tried to get back to the original building,” she said.

“We’ve removed some of the old plaster and exposed the lovely brickwork again. We’ve opened up the ceiling so you can see the original ceiling structure and the beams and tried to strip it back to the original state.”

New windows have also been installed throughout as well as toilets, a kitchen and two new outside play areas.

The move to the new premises came when the opportunity arose for the preschool to open in its own building.

“We’re really thrilled that a lot of our parents decided to come with us from our last site, and waited for us even though there was this delay,” said Elaine.

“This has been wonderful because a lot of them are working parents and they’ve had to arrange childcare until we could open.

“We really thought this was exceptional.”

The nursery provides all day care from 8.45am until 5.30pm, and accepts children who are eligible for 30 hours of government funded education.

“Our ethos is that we’ve very much a home from home for our children,” said Elaine.

“We always have wanted to give our children that homely feeling when they’re here, and that’s what we think we’ve achieved again.”