Our local village nursery The Blossom Tree in Fleckney LE8 8BP was closed at 3pm on Tuesday 21 April 2015 by Ofsted due to complaints from parents about the new owners. Up to 31 March 2015 it was owned by Anna Spicknell, then the new owners Friends Nursery Ltd, represented by Kalpana Gosai, Sunil Kotecha, Deepak Kotecha and Aashish Parmar from 1 April 2015.

The new owners had not yet received their Ofsted registration number and gave many conflicting stories to parents about where they were in the process. They then announced with only 4 working days' notice that it would be highly likely that would need to close the nursery for 6-8 weeks if not longer pending receipt of their Ofsted number. The parents and the ex-staff are extremely concerned about the new owners' understanding of:

1. basic nursery security and safety, for example placing hot tea on the floor in the baby room telling the babies to be careful, letting people in the front door while on the telephone and not asking who they are, telling a parent that their child was not at nursery when they were;

2. understanding of adult to child ratios, for example that one adult is required per three children in the baby room and that one adult cannot take all pre-schoolers and toddlers outside at once;

3. poor treatment of staff, for example bullying the staff and the previous owner Anna, not allowing the staff to use the staff room to eat their lunch and blocking area for the staff facilities to prepare their lunch. Note that all staff have now resigned and left however payment of wages are still outstanding. The new owners are now trying to recruit apprentices as new staff;

4. use of the building, for example saying that the toddlers would not be using their designated area anymore and could stay with the pre-schoolers;

5. responsibility to Ofsted for example not understanding that they were obliged to close when instructed and leaving the staff to manage the situation for the safety of the children.

6. The importance of communication with parents in order to build trust and confidence, for example the majority of parents found it very hard talking to the new owners and were quite upset after attempting dialogue.

The list of complaints goes on and on for each member of staff and parent. The impact of the closure has been very upsetting and unsettling for our children and their families, they miss their usual routine, friends and the staff. Parents have to find new childcare at short notice with spaces locally going very fast, parents have had to change working hours and days. People have to drive further to drop off their children. The lack of after school club means that places are now limited there too.

As a village we need a nursery that we can trust and rely on to look after or children and we feel it our duty to show the support of the parents and their families, ex-staff and local residents to block the Ofsted application.

Please sign the petition and you can add your own comments if you want to. You can also contact Ofsted directly by calling on 0300 123 4666 or email cie@ofsted.gov.uk stating the postcode of Blossom Tree LE8 8BP in any emails. Our voice protects the future of the children in our village. Thank you.