Mother and daughter launch Merseyside’s first Spanish-English bilingual nursery

A mumpreneur from New Brighton has launched Merseyside’s first ever English-Spanish bilingual nursery.

Fluent Spanish speaker Jenny Birch is the co-owner of Habla, a new childcare centre aiming to pass the educational and developmental benefits of a second-language on to youngsters.

Teaming up with her mum in the new venture, Jenny believes learning English and Spanish will give children a head start in life.

She speaks both languages to her own son Joseph, who was born in June.

Jenny said: “British people are notoriously poor at learning a second language because English is already a world-wide tongue. We’ve traditionally thought, ‘Why bother?’

“Many top educationalists are convinced that children who speak more than one language develop educationally and socially much quicker than those who don’t.”

She continued: “Half of our nursery staff will be native Spanish speakers and the other half will speak to the children in English. It may sound a bit confusing but it really works.

“Children are far more able to cope with two languages than adults. I’m convinced it’s the way forward for nursery education in the UK and I’m so proud that ‘Habla’ is a first for Wirral and Merseyside.”

Habla is based on Salacres Lane in Upton, in the former nursery The Wendy House.

Jenny added: “We’re not putting up our fees either so they’ll be fixed at the same level as the previous nursery in Upton and we’ve no catchment area. Our new nursery school Habla is for children anywhere in Wirral.”