Nursery tears

UPSET: Moorside Pre-School owner Janet Clegg with (back, from left) Gracie Knowles, Joe Holroyd and Thomas Crompton. Front: Jack Shepered and Harvey Mould

Heartbreak as ‘Auntie Janet’ says goodbye
THE owner of a much-loved pre-school has described her devastation at having to close.

Janet Clegg — known affectionately as Auntie Janet — has taken the decision because of falling numbers at Moorside Pre-School.

She has run The Haven Lane business for 17-and-a-half years and was nominated for a Pride in Oldham Award in 2010.

In the same year, she saved the life of a toddler who stopped breathing during a story-telling session.

The nursery has also battled through numerous attacks by vandals, with Moorside Lotto winner Tommy Cone providing new security fences.

Mrs Clegg (51), who has four children of her own, said: “It’s devastating, heartbreaking, but there is nothing I can do. If there was I would. What has happened is that children can now go into school the term after their third birthday. Where we could keep them until the September, we are losing children to the schools.

“The numbers have dropped which means the money isn’t coming in. To keep running it takes £1,300 a week and we are only taking £400.

“We have struggled on and struggled on. It’s got to the point where we just can’t continue. I have done a lot of crying because it has been my life.”

Janet originally took her children to the the pre-school and stepped in when the previous manager wanted to leave.

It has seven staff and 31 children, several with special educational needs, but the number of children has halved in the last year.

Originally due to close on Friday, it will now stay open until Friday, February 24, thanks to a grant from Oldham Council’s Early Years department.

Janet added: “It has been a pre-school for a long, long time.

“I have got mums that used to come here when they were little.

“I have children now that have left secondary school and they still call me Auntie Janet.

“I don’t know what I am going to do. I haven’t got my head around losing it yet and it is the staff as well. They have all lost their jobs.”

Debbie Holroyd has a two-year-old son, Joe, who attends Moorside.

She said: “He loves it. Every morning when he gets up he says ‘am I going to see Auntie Janet?’

“It is like a family. If you have got a problem, Auntie Janet has always got time for you.

“Even now she is more worried about us losing our places and the staff than she is about losing her business.”