Help Us Reinstate Tarfside Pre School Provisions

Tarfie Tots are a new toddler group in Glen Esk, a remote rural area in Angus, Scotland. We are a group of new young mums in the glen and have primarily started this group in the hope that the council would reopen the nursery in Tarfside Primary School. At present the school has 4 pupils enrolled. We have 6 young children in our group at present, 3 of which are eligible to start in the next school session. Our partners all work on rural private estates. Estates that have received letters from the public and the school requesting that they employ young families to keep the school populated. We have been told by the head of children and young people in Angus, that due to insufficient numbers they feel that the children wouldn't get a meaningful learning experience. The nursery was previously opened for 1 child, just over a year ago. In our community there is not much for the children and it is vital that the Tarfside pre school provisions are reinstated. It would be unfair to expect children of such a young age to travel an hour round trip to the nearest open nursery (Edzell). For them to adapt to a routine, especially during the winter months, to then be uprooted when it's time to start primary school at Tarfisde. Our children meet at the school twice a week and use the schools nursery room. The children have great delight in going to 'school' as they already call it. They learn so much, painting, colouring, planting, singing nursery rhymes etc. Our children range from 2 months to age 4. One of our parents does not drive and already has one of her children attend Tarfside Primary. This would mean her having to travel on a public bus to take her child to nursery in Edzell. She would then need to uplift her child out of her nursery class half an hour earlier than when it finishes to be back in time to meet her son of the school bus at home. Assuming the bus runs on time. Not only would this have a large economical impact on each of our families but an environmental one. These young children are the viral arteries to keeping the school in the Glen alive. By not accomodating them with the proper facilities that they fundamentally need for such an impressionable time in their young lives is inacceptable. Please help support us to get these facilities opened again for our children.