A VILLAGE pre-school which was among the first of its kind in Oxfordshire celebrated its 40th birthday by inviting back the teacher who started it.

Long Wittenham Pre-school, based at the village hall, celebrated its impressive milestone by inviting founder Pat Lay, 70, back for a party.

In 1969 a small group of women in the village, near Didcot, asked Mrs Lay to start the school because of her experience of teaching infants.

Money was raised by coffee mornings and jumble sales, and it was soon open two mornings a week, with sessions costing half a crown (12.5p). Now the school has 20 children, four staff and is open five mornings a week.

Mrs Lay said a nursery education was not the norm when she started the group in 1970.

She said: “Back then, you very much looked after your own children until they went to school, so mothers were suspicious of sending their children to be looked after by a stranger before school.

“I’m thrilled something I was involved with at the start is still going. We never envisaged that 40 years later it would be still running.”

She even looked after eight youngsters from home when she fell pregnant in 1971.

However, she said recent government policy had changed childcare for the worst.

“I despair these days,” she said. “There is far too much emphasis on formal education.

“That’s not how life should be for small children.

“In the 1970s, it was about learning through play, but it was also very much a make do and mend ethos for us.

“Our homemade children’s kitchen was a wooden box stove with cooker rings painted on and our Wendy house was a clothes horse draped with sheets.

“But the children loved it.”

Co-chairman of the pre-school, Debbie Croft said the facility was now essential to village life. She added: “Children should have a chance to meet together and prepare for school.

“But it is also a chance for parents to meet as well. It is one of the focal points of a village.”

Vicky Archer, a supervisor at the school since 2005, said: “I’m thrilled to be part of a village pre-school that is still popular 40 years on, thanks to the hard work of a lot of people during that time.

“Nowadays we are fortunate that pre-schools are seen as good preparation for school.”