Children’s Illustrator Opens New Nursery

By School House

7 years ago

David Roberts cut the ribbon at Cumnor House's new building


Children’s illustrator and author, David Roberts, was guest of honour at the opening of Cumnor House‘s new nursery facility.

Cumnor House David Roberts

After cutting the ribbon, with the help of the nursery children, David sat down to read from some of his titles. These included Dirty Bertie, which he wrote and illustrated, and Julia Donaldson’s Jack and the Flumflum Tree, which he illustrated.

‘It was lovely to have such an animated audience at a very young age,’ David commented.  ‘It was evident that the children were very familiar with my Dirty Bertie and Julia’s Flumflum Tree stories. They laughed in all the right places and had lots of question to ask me about Bertie!  It was a lovely way to celebrate the opening of their beautiful new nursery – they certainly are very lucky children.’

Following his storytelling session, David showed the children how to go about drawing Bertie. Afterwards, the author proved to have green fingers too by helping with the planting of Cumnor’s very own ‘Flumflum’ tree in the play area. He then shared freshly-baked Flumflum cake and juice with the children. Before heading back home to London, he had a special surprise in store for the children. The talented illustrator had drawn a picture of Bertie on one of the nursery’s interior walls as a lasting reminder of his visit.

‘We are very excited about the opening of our new dedicated nursery building,’ comments nursery manager, Emily Tier. ‘It really has been designed with children in mind being light and airy. It’s a truly wonderful space for young children to learn and play. From September 2017 we will be offering wraparound care and the nursery will be open for 50 weeks of the year from 7am to 7pm. This mean everyone within our local community and beyond will have access throughout the year to a fabulous facility for nursery-aged children.’

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