A PLAYGROUP in Seend celebrated its 50th anniversary last month with an event for past and present families of the group.
Seend Playgroup first started in 1974 in the Village Hall and has seen many generations of local children over the years.
“I have been here for 36 years,” says Rose Dick, who took over as play leader seven years ago.
“The children of the children come to the playgroup now as well, which is just brilliant and that’s a real highlight of mine. My own grandchildren came here as well and one of our volunteers, Liz, who started here with her own children when it opened in 1974.”
The group was awarded a ‘good’ Ofsted report in June 2022 and Rose said it is popular with local families.
“We are quite busy at the moment,” she explained. “The reason I think the playgroup is popular in the village is because our prices are reasonable and we have so much space, with the playground and field. We get outside a lot. I also think that the fact that it isn’t a nursery makes us popular because we encourage a lot of play. We are not trying to teach the children as such.”
The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the main challenges the playgroup has had to navigate through over the years, says Rose. “It was quite hard. We had a couple of months off but then we were coming in even when the schools were off. Parents were grateful that we could still have younger ones in so they could concentrate on the older ones.”
To celebrate half a century of play and supporting local families, the community joined together at Lye Field in Seend for a BBQ with a bouncy castle on Friday 14th June.
