Oakfield Nursery School in Altrincham has received a prestigious national award for best Individual Nursery 2008 at the NMT Nursery Awards held at the Hilton London Metropole Hotel.

The awards – organised by nursery management magazine Nursery Management Today – are the longest-running and most prestigious in the nursery sector. Now in their sixth year, the awards attracted a wide range of sponsorship from the nursery, IT, banking and legal sectors. This year saw the biggest awards yet, with more entries than ever from all over Britain. Oakfield Nursery School was chosen from hundreds of applications and Roisin Moriarty, proprietor and owner of the school, received the award from well-known TV presenter Konnie Huq, who hosted the evening. The judges chose Oakfield Nursery School because of their commitment to staff, children and parents; for encouraging staff development through leading by example; and putting children’s education as a key aspect.

Mrs Moriarty collected the trophy with those of her team who could be present. Mrs Moriarty commented: “It was very exciting - like the ‘nursery Oscars’! - there were five nursery schools in the finals of our category”. She went on to say ‘We are delighted to win this award, especially in our 40th year. It recognises the commitment and professionalism of our team in providing the best care and creating a wonderful learning environment for our children. It is great for staff morale and for our parents to be able to say officially that they send their children to the best nursery school in Britain!”

Mrs Moriarty added: “I would have loved all 33 of the staff to have been present at the awards ceremony, but as it was held in London, we would have had to close the nursery for the day. Obviously we couldn’t do that, but nearly a third of our parents kindly agreed to collect their children early on Friday to allow 12 of us to travel to London in time for the evening.”

The evening consisted of a champagne reception, a gala dinner, the awards ceremony itself and was followed by after-dinner dancing with a live band. This year’s event supported the work of NSPCC Childline, with money raised used to support the development of their valuable online resources and support for children.

Winning the award rounds off a wonderful year in which the Nursery has also celebrated its 40th anniversary. The school was also rated “Outstanding” in the latest OFSTED inspection. Oakfield is a stand-alone, second generation, family owned and managed nursery school. Founded in 1968, it is one of the longest established, private nursery schools in the country. It caters for 80 children from babies through to primary school age.