Mary Reid

The Mayor had just cut the ribbons and the balloons floated up into the sky.

Today we were celebrating two exciting new ventures.

Buckland Infants and Moor Lane Junior have amalgamated to form Castle Hill Primary, under the headship of Chris Wansborough.

At the same time the first Children's Centre in South of the Borough opened on the Buckland site. This will offer a huge range of activities and resources for parents of younger children, provided by education, health and other professionals.

It includes the Piglets pre-school, parent-and-child groups and events, family learning (parents workshops, ICT, English as a second language etc), toy library, as well as a breakfast, after-school and holiday clubs for the older ones. On top of all that, drop in advice sessions will be available on health care, welfare benefits, housing and with the local Safer Neighbourhoods police team.

This is a great step forward in the community and certainly worth a few balloons.