Children’s nurseries are throwing their doors open in Shadwell to new mums and dads on Saturday for the first time since the lockdown began.

East London Advertiser: Polly, put the kettle on... there's a dear. One toddler learning kitchen craft at Montessori nursery. Picture: Rob SmalleyPolly, put the kettle on... there's a dear. One toddler learning kitchen craft at Montessori nursery. Picture: Rob Smalley (Image: Rob Smalley)

But the prospective nursery parents have to keep their distance when they look round to comply with social distance guidelines.

The Montessori Busy Bees Green Gables at St George’s-in-the-East parish church in Cannon Street Road and its nearby Green Gables Primary in Wapping Lane are inviting the parents to book appointments between 10am and 4pm to limit people in the nursery at any one time.

“The last few months have shown the importance of community spirit,” Montessori director Klara Byrne said. “We’re bringing people together once again as we emerge from these very challenging times with our first open day in months.”

Appointments are booked online or by phone on 033-0333 8133.

East London Advertiser: Green Gables' founding director Jackie Brierley opening her new private primary school in 2011... that's her son on the poster when he was just a nipper. Picture: Mike BrookeGreen Gables' founding director Jackie Brierley opening her new private primary school in 2011... that's her son on the poster when he was just a nipper. Picture: Mike Brooke (Image: Mike Brooke)

Green Gables primary school opened in 2011 to fill a gap for working parents who felt the summer break was too long to cope. It took children from three months to 11 years, 8am to 6pm, for 48 weeks a year with only two weeks off in the summer and two weeks at Christmas.

Its founding director Jackie Brierley, a mother-of-three from Bow, had been running her Montessori nursery in St George’s crypt since 1989. She then leased the ground floor of a luxury block in Wapping Lane, the other side of The Highway, for her new school to take up to 94 children, aimed at working parents in the City or Canary Wharf to drop their kids off on the way to work and collect them going home.

State schools close for 18 weeks a year, so that was the gap Jackie identified in 2011, and came up with ‘all in’ care-and-education from babies to 11-year-olds ready to move onto secondary schooling.