Community News

RETIRING FROM THE RAINBOW

When news that Gill and Gillian were handing over the reins of the Rainbow Montessori Nursery in Burghfield Common after 25 years, we felt that we just had to pay tribute to them in the magazine. These ladies have been second Mums to hundreds, probably thousands, of local families over those 25 years, including our editor’s family here at the mag, who are ‘all grown up’ now!

The ladies said, “We greatly appreciate the fantastic opportunity the Nursery has given us, to meet such wonderful people; children, staff and parents. We have learned so much from working at The Nursery, including how fascinating soap dispensers are for 2 year olds, chairs placed in a row make the best train carriages and how much fun children can have whilst playing ‘the spot game’! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the support and loyalty you have given us over the years and, although we both agree it is the right time to bid the Nursery farewell, we will miss you all tremendously but know we leave you in the very caring and capable hands of all our staff.”

The nursery ownership has been passed into the capable hands of Eliza and Sam Lee, a local young family, keen to build on Gill & Gillian’s foundations to further improve the nursery - welcome Eliza & Sam!

We know both ladies will be looking forward to new beginnings, especially the opportunity to holiday during term time and we’re sure our readers will join us in saying thank you for the years of service you’ve provided. You are a pair of stars!

MINIPRENEURS! AW,HOW SWEET

It's always a pleasure to hear about our local businesses growing and this one really caught our attention.

We heard about a Burghfield schoolboy who's been bringing joy to hundreds of our local villagers by delivering bags of sweets in his time outside of school. Jack came up with the idea himself when his parents challenged him to think of something different to do instead of playing computer games.

He thought about what children are into and set about planning his first business all by himself, from buying stock, packaging, marketing, delivery and then reinvesting back. He even ran his first online competition to add some extra magic and thank his rapidly growing customer base. His Mum Pip said "Jack has always been a bright boy but like so many children he has struggled with the seesaw life of school in the last year, this venture has really triggered his mind into thinking about why schooling is important and what you can achieve with that education in the real world. The family are all fully behind our little star" Well, we at Village Eye are delighted with our yummy bag of sweets, delivered for only £2.50 or £2 collected. What a wonderful, happy chap Jack is and we wish him all the best with his Kandy Kidz venture.

ENOURMOUS NEXT STORE OPENING SOON!

There haven’t been many good news stories from the nation’s high streets recently, but Parkway, Newbury, certainly has something to celebrate. They’ve just announced that Aberdeen Standard Investment’s Pooled Pension Fund and Next have exchanged contracts for new 50,000+ sq. ft Next store which will be opening summer 2021.

To give you a guage of the size of this new store, 50,000 square feet is 2/3 the size of a football pitch! The store will carry their full ranges of ladies wear, menswear, kids wear, homeware and will have a Mamas & Papas concession. There are also plans to incorporate a café. Watch this space :)

MAKING JAM WITH KATHERINE & SAM

Our hearts were warmed recently when we received the following news story about Katherine and her brother Sam who have gone the extra mile to demonstrate true community spirit and charitable sentiment , written by Katherine (aged 9), here’s what she had to say:

“We started making Lockdown Jam in April last year during the first lockdown. Since then, we have made more than four hundred jars of jam and raised over £500 for West Berks Foodbank.

The first product we made was not jam or jelly; we made dandelion honey because there were more dandelions than fruit around. We have also made things like raspberry and strawberry jam, pumpkin marmalade, and cranberry jelly. We have picked blackberries, apples, rosehips, hawthorn, elderberries, sloes, plums, damsons, crabapples and pears. We have also made special treats like Christmas cakes and Valentine’s fudge.

We wrote to the Queen about our shop and we have been on the news for making money for the food bank. If you would like to try Lockdown Jam for yourself, the box is outside the gates of the Red House on the main street in Aldermaston.” Well done to the pair of you, you should be very proud of yourselves - keep up the good work!