Fantastic facility for fantastic children.

Alasdair With Chris Mole MP and members of staff from both 'Little Acorns' and the 'Cabin Crew'.

I was fortunate enough yesterday to be invited to the "Grand Opening" of the 'Little Acorn' playschool and the 'Cabin Crew' after school club. Both organisations have just moved in to a joint location at Sidegate Primary School in Ipswich.

This was the culmination of over two years hard work mainly undertaken by the staff of both 'Little Acorns' and the 'Cabin Crew' . They received fantastic assistance and guidance through the whole process from Mr Andrew Waterman, the Head Teacher at Sidegate Primary.

I was joined at the opening by our local MP, Chris Mole.

Labour has come under some criticism for some of it's education policy, but here was a fine example of a policy that is working- the one of extended schools and of the school becoming the hub of the community. We now have the 'Cabin Crew' providing a breakfast club and an after school club, whilst the 'Little Acorns' can now provide a playschool for both morning and afternoon sessions.

This project has received the largest grant in the County yet, but it was still not enough so we were fortunate that members of the local community, Sidegate Primary and fund raising by both organisations has helped reached the final total. My Labour colleague, Clr Sue Thomas was able to allocate some of her locality grant to the centre.

One of this Labour Governments objectives should be to have a centre like this at every Primary school in the town. This is a fine example of what 'extended schools' is all about.