Jemma Walton reports.

IT'S not often you walk into a room that is thumping with life. But stroll into the children's centre just off Saxon Road and everyone is buzzing.

Mums are sitting alongside their kids, frantically kneading, rolling, cutting and baking biscuits. The sun is shining, toddlers are tending to the teddy bears enjoying a picnic outside, and everyone has got a wide smile on their face.

Ormiston Peterborough East, the children's centre in Durham Road, has only been up and running for six weeks, and yet it is nearly always packed.

But then, the project has been working in east of the city for about 10 years, starting life as a parent and toddler group and moving around the city until getting its own place earlier this year.

And so staff have had plenty of time to attract families and build up relationships in the community, which, to judge by all the happy faces, they obviously have.

The project now offers a wide range of activities for children aged up to five and their parents, including a hot chocolate morning, dance classes for children, and a slimming group.

Today the frenzy of activity comes as the stay and play group are celebrating the end of a themed unit of work.

"The theme was 'In the Garden," said Ellen Gavin, the group's leader. "Our next theme will be happy healthy lives. It's amazing – the mums enjoy the activities as much as the kids, if not more, sometimes.

"We made a wormery once, and all the parents were on their hands and knees, fascinated by what they were doing. We even had one woman go home and make her own in her back garden!"

Qamer Nisa is the service manager, and said the success of her centre is thanks to the hard work and dedication of her staff. "Having our own centre means we can build really good working relationships with each other," she said.

"And parents know that we're here. It doesn't matter what problem they've got, when they walk through these doors they know there is a group of people who will be able to help them."

The East Children's Centre is obviously a light, bright, successful place which is enjoyable to work in as it is to play in. And Qamer clearly loves her job.

"I enjoy seeing families doing things together," she said. "We're not about the parents sitting in one place and the kids sitting in another and playing, we're about everyone playing together.

"Seeing families who live in challenging circumstances relaxed and engaging with each other, is what my job is all about."

Maria D'Souza, of Star Road, brings her two-year-old, Christopher, to the centre for three sessions a week.

She said: "I love coming here because you get to meet new people all the time.

"We mainly speak Portuguese at home, but here we mix with people who speak English, and that has been great for his English – and for mine."


East Children's Centre operates as part of an integrated universal services team for birth to 19 years in the East of Peterborough. It is accountable both to Ormiston Children and Families Trust and to the East Area Advisory Board, which is led by Peterborough City Council.