A BASINGSTOKE nursery which opened last year has won a top prize at a national awards.

Little Me Day Nurseries, which opened in Skyline Plaza, Alencon Link, in October 2013, was declared the winner of Two-Year-Old Provision at the Nursery World 2014 Awards.

The seventh annual Nursery World Awards were held at the historic Brewery in London, hosted by Dave Benson Phillips. The awards recognise the best childcare and early years education in the UK. Little Me Day Nurseries caters for children aged from three-months to five-years with the emphasis on providing a home-from-home environment and a wide variety of experiences for children.

The nursery beat off tough competition from hundreds of nurseries across the UK to win the award, after impressing a judging panel of 23 professionals.

The nursery was praised for recognising the Government’s two-year-old funding scheme as an opportunity to make a real difference for young children and their families.

Mandy Khaira, founder of Little Me, accepted the award at the gala dinner, and said: “Having experienced nursery provision as a parent, I wanted to create a caring, sharing, ‘go the extra mile’ environment, but with more professionalism and attention to detail than is often the case.

“I have a great team and we like to implement ideas and initiatives which support our parents as well as our children.”

Little Me was also praised for investing in a new buggy, which transports up to six children at once, and is used to take two-year-olds on its funding scheme to a variety of activities at no extra cost, such as soft play, cookery, dance, yoga, football and French classes.

A Nursery World Awards spokesman said: “The nursery treats each child and family according to their own specific needs, on occasions even providing sessions to children free of charge in extreme circumstances.

“An unemployed single mother of a two-year-old child at the nursery was given help with her CV by staff and her child was able to attend the nursery free of charge while she went to interviews. This eventually led to her gaining full-time employment, which meant she was able to pay full nursery fees herself, without the need for Government funding.”