Teddington Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We aim to showcase some of these businesses, organisations and interesting individuals regularly in a feature called 'Up Close'.

Today we caught up with Jenny Hunt, an ex Playwam parent who couldn't say goodbye to the preschool after her two sons left.

After training to be a teacher with a specialism in Early Years, she is now manager at the not for profit preschool based at St Mary's Parish Hall on Langham Road that has been supported by parents in the Teddington community for over 50 years.

Playwam's story

The year is 1969. The Working Association of Mothers (WAM) has just been christened by Teddington mother of two Diana Priestley, a cooperative set up to support young mothers with children, offer flexible childcare and provide mothers with the opportunity to look for work.

Her scheme idea was quite simple, "why shouldn't young mothers' band together and provide the facilities they need themselves? Why not form a self-organisation so that those who wished could find part-time work while others manned a playgroup?"

A flood of telephone calls followed, resulting in the recruitment of a number of women at WAM, all of whom grasped at the spirit of the organisation from the start.

Fast forward 52 years, and the WAM in the now, Playwam, is as present as ever as the community led organisation continues to serve families in Teddington, providing children between the ages of two and four a nurturing, stimulating and inspiring environment allowing them the best possible start to their early education.

Personal, social and emotional development is focused on through teacher's exploration with children on managing emotions, making friendships, the world around them and the diversity of cultures.

As well as focusing on basic mathematics and literacy, Playwam's staff work on communication and language, encouraging children to express themselves, listen to others and explain their ideas in words, pictures, songs and rhymes.

Nurturing children's curiosity and love for the outdoors is a fundemntal aspect of Playwam's teaching.

When queried on what differentiates Playwam from alternative preschool learning, Jenny Hunt explained: "I would point to two clear factors. Firstly, our warmth and family feel. Because we have such an active and supportive parent committee, we build very strong relationships with each other.

"We often have former parents who continue to come to our events and some who volunteer with us. There is a huge amount of affection for Playwam and you never really say goodbye when you leave. This type of parental investment has a really positive impact on the children who are happy and secure because of it.

"And secondly, our amazing and highly qualified staff. We are led by two qualified teachers, have a high ratio of staff to children and are a well-established and experienced team with a very low staff turnover. We love working here and the children love being here."

Community ties have been crucial to Playwam's longevity in Teddington. Visitors are regularly invited to give talks to the children including local community police, vets, doctors, dentists and most recently a local crossing patrol officer who gave a talk on road safety.

Park Lane Stables have been long term supporters of the preschool and often bring their ponies to see the children. Every year, the children attend a nativity at St Mary's with St Alban's and the Sainsbury's local across the road donates fruit every morning.

Highlighting the key benefits of preschool learning Jenny added: "I could talk about this one all day! A child's early years are critical for their development as it's the time in their life where their brains are making the highest number of neural connections.

"A good preschool will offer quality interactions, experiences and relationships which will lay a strong foundation for future learning, health and behaviour."

Playwam are currently accepting registrations for places in September 2022, we concluded our chat with Jenny by asking her why she would encourage parents and their children to come and join the preschool community.

She said: "Playwam really is a special place. I'd encourage prospective parents to come and visit us to see for themselves. Children thrive with us and we aim to create happy, confident and independent learners who are more than ready to move onto school when they leave us.

"Our parent community are friendly, approachable, and supportive to each other as well as to the setting. It's a great place to be part of."

For more information on Playwam, visit their website here.