Two early childhood education centres in Nelson have closed their doors just months after their operating licences were suspended by the Ministry of Education.
ACE Titoki and ACE Nayland – both owned by the same company – closed their doors in March and May respectively, giving parents just two weeks’ notice to find another facility for their children before doing so.
It came after the ministry first suspended, then downgraded the licences held by the centres in December last year.
Both centres had their licences suspended for a week from December 14 last year for not meeting the minimum standards for curriculum, management and administration, health and safety, premises and facilities and for ill-treating children.
They then had their licences downgraded to provisional for not meeting the minimum standards for management and administration from December 22.
Nationally, 43 centres were handed a suspension last year, with 218 downgraded to a provisional licence.
Co-owner Tim Powell says the closure was due to many factors – including personal issues – and came on the back of a tough year.
“We had a huge reputation, brilliant pre schools that worked really, really well. We had a wonderful time and it’s been an amazing experience. But the last year was very difficult for us and for many businesses in this community.”
He says they had a “great team” and met lot of “really cool kids and cool families”.
“We’re not a big corporate, just a family business and we’ve operated proudly that way for almost ten years.”
The site at Nayland Rd won’t be empty for long though with a new centre, Little Red Fox, taking over the lease and preparing to open in the coming months.
