Beloved Midhurst nursery to celebrate 40 years of educating children

Chris Reseigh, who started Midhurst Nursery Class in 1984, never thought she’d be doing it now, some forty years later. “I started it for my son, because he was all set to go to a particular playgroup – and it closed,” she said. “I remember telling my husband that I didn’t know what to do, and he said ‘well there’s only one thing to do – start your own.’ I didn’t think it was going to work, but it did."

Decades later, she and her staff are still here, having taught generations of children, and loving it more than ever.

"Midhurst is such a stable community, so you get to know families really well,” Mrs Reseigh explained. “We’ve had children of children come through, parents who’ve become staff, even ex-pupils who’ve joined the staff.

"In fact, one of the things I’m most proud of is, over 40 years, we’ve only had 22 members of staff; because people come and they want to stay, which is lovely. They like working here and we like having them. We have people move or retire or have to give up for some other reason, but it’s very rare that someone leaves us because they’re not happy.”

Midhurst Nursery Class is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary on May 1, with a series of celebrations with the children themselves, the children who, Mrs Reseigh said, continue to make the nursery such a special place.

"I just think children are wonderful. I love the way they are not judgemental about people; what age you are, what you look like, it doesn’t matter. All that matters to them is that you care about them and you’re interested in them. And it’s so refreshing because we seem to live in such judgemental world in the moment."

She added: “Every day for them is a new day. It doesn’t matter what they were angry about yesterday – it happened yesterday, and they’ve forgotten it.”