A pre-school rated as outstanding is closing down after losing its home of 24 years, affecting 60 children including many with special needs.

Happy Pre-School in St Mary Cray opened in 1995 and has been a tenant of St Andrew's Church in Lower Road ever since.

It was forced to move out of the church hall at the end of last year because of a flood, finding a temporary home at the nearby Oasis Community Hub in Park Road.

Joyce Alimo, who set up the pre-school, said she was expecting to return to the church once repairs were carried out.

But she has been told the pre-school will no longer be able to use the hall.

The agreement to use the alternative base at the Oasis Community Hub ends on March 22 and Joyce has taken the decision to close the pre-school after that.

"I have lost my business," Joyce told News Shopper. "I have special needs children who don’t like change and that’s keeping me up at night."

She added: "The parents and staff are absolutely devastated. The eight of them will be made redundant and some parents will be out of jobs now too."

The pre-school was rated outstanding by Ofsted inspectors in 2015, and Joyce praised her "incredible" team.

"My staff have been with me for 20 years. They are the best, they really are the best."

Happy Pre-School currently manages 60 children aged between two and five, and 30 per cent of them have special needs.

"The whole community is upset," Joyce said. "I’m checking on these children on a daily basis to see if they are alright.

"This is going to cease. Who is going to check on them?"

The early years provider also fears the children will be unable to find alternative pre-schools at this time of year.

"Who has 60 spaces to offer?" she questioned after saying childcare has always been her passion.

According to Joyce, "no explanation" was offered by the church about why the school is not being welcomed back.

"I did my best," was Joyce’s simple final message to the parents she has interacted with over the past two decades.

Joyce said she tried to find alternative accommodation but said any possibilities were too far away, particularly for the special needs children.

A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Rochester, which covers the church, said they believed the school had found permanent accommodation elsewhere.

She also added the scope of the work following the flooding "was greater than initially anticipated".

"In light of the above, and reassured that the pre-school had secured alternative accommodation, we terminated Happy Pre School’s use of the hall.

"We appreciate that the departure of Happy Pre School from our Church Hall has been disappointing for many families and members of the community, but we wish Happy Pre-School well for the future.

"We would also like to reassure everyone that as a parish we have been doing all we can to get the hall up and running again with as little disruption as possible, and to ensure the hall is not at risk of flooding again."