{"id":175,"date":"2014-07-30T13:24:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T12:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yessibello.bujournalism.info\/?p=175"},"modified":"2014-07-30T13:24:06","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T12:24:06","slug":"frustration-mounts-among-parents-following-spanish-nursery-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mammj2014.buprojects.uk\/YessiBello\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/frustration-mounts-among-parents-following-spanish-nursery-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustration mounts following closure of Spanish nursery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The closure of the Spanish nursery in Portobello Road has left many of London’s Spaniards feeling frustrated.<\/p>\n

The facility – which opened at the height of Spanish immigration in 1977 – is an independent establishment run by the Spanish\u00a0Department of Employment and Social Work.<\/a><\/p>\n

Its recent closure has had a huge impact on young families, whose older children attend the\u00a0Spanish school (Instituto Ca\u00f1ada Blanch)<\/a>\u00a0on the same site, and who hoped to send their youngest to the nursery.<\/p>\n

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Silvana Lamport, whose eldest sons are enrolled at the school, has branded the closure a “logistical nightmare.<\/p>\n

“For me the impact is huge, we are even considering moving house. We already travel in from far away and continuing to do so would only make sense if all my children attended the school and nursery at the same time,” she says.<\/p>\n

The nursery is perceived to be a feeding system into the Spanish school, which is considered to be an important pillar of the community. \u00a0There are rising fears among parents that depriving small children of a Spanish education from a young age would eventually lead to the demise of their culture.<\/p>\n

Those affected are protesting because Spanish 3 and 4 year olds in all other Spanish state primary schools in Europe (Lisbon, Paris, Rome, Andorra), Morocco and Spain are still able to attend nursery.\u00a0The Department of Employment and Social Work has pointed out that this is due to the fact that those establishments are run by another Spanish\u00a0Department (Education, Culture and Sport)<\/a>. It seems however, that the arguments put forward have done little to diminish the parent’s anger.<\/p>\n

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“It is a lack of respect towards children under the age of four, who have had the right to attend a Spanish nursery in London for the last 37 years. It’s an embarrassment.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n