One East End family-run nursery has been celebrating its own special treble this week — thanks to some very talented pre-schoolers.

The Enchanted Tree Nursery in Broomhouse were recognised for the third year running at the annual Primary Engineer Competition at Glasgow City Chambers.

Four-year-olds Grace and Òrla earlier this month scooped the overall winners’ prize in the Apprentice Level 1 category with the design of their Team Lego car.

Ahead of the competition, primary and nursery school children across the city were set the challenge of building and presenting a small moving vehicle in the aim of impressing engineer judges on the day.

Marking the achievement, Glasgow East MP David Linden made a special visit to present Grace, Òrla and the nursery team with a certificate that notes their efforts have been recognised in the House of Commons.

With Grace and Òrla’s talents now immortalised at Westminster, thanks to his raising of an Early Day Motion, Mr Linden says: “Being the only nursery in the competition along with older primary school kids is something that’s really worth celebrating.

“Unfortunately there is still a bit of a stigma that engineering is still a very macho industry, so the fact we’ve also got young girls being recognised for this is hugely inspiring.”

Excited to share how they won over the judges at the competition event, Grace says: "We had to make sure the axles on our Lego car were all the same size so it would go far down the ramp.

"Our car went the straightest and the furthest."

Having designed and built everything on their Team Lego car, with exception of the tough job of piercing the axles, Òrla smiles: "We had Everything is Awesome music coming from the speaker on the car as it went, too."

Grace and Òrla’s achievement follows a winning trend for The Enchanted Tree Nursery.

In 2017, youngsters Shaw and James formed the Bat Boys and won the Apprentice Level 1 category, which spans nursery to Primary 3 ages.

And last year, youngsters Lila and Skye were runners-up as Team Princess. Two more teams from the nursery also won Participation awards this year.

Family is at the heart of everything at the Enchanted Tree Nursery. At the helm is Laura-Jane Gelston, having opened the nursery in late 2016 with her aunt, Catherine McDonagh.

With Catherine’s business knowledge and Laura-Jane’s experience as a primary school teacher — accompanied by a Computer Engineering degree — the path was set to grow the nursery around both a family and STEAM-based learning environment.

Laura-Jane and Catherine have put their heart and soul into the nursery, along with Laura-Jane’s husband Simon, who is outdoor learning co-ordinator, and cousin Juliana, in her role as an early learning practitioner.

“Simon’s focus is outdoor learning and his big project is Play Together on Pedals,” Laura-Jane explains. “When we first started the project only one of our pre-schoolers could ride a pedal bike and now over 94% can ride.”

Simon jokes: “We’ve still got time to make it 100%... we’ve still got over the summer.”

Perhaps a victim of their own success, the nursery has now reached its capacity to teach pre-schoolers up until August 2020.

But with plans to expand the Enchanted Tree family nurseries further across the East End, Laura-Jane says: “I think there is a huge demand in this area especially if nurseries close or if they’re not doing additional hours which we provide. We’re open at 7.30am in the morning which makes a huge difference.

"We don’t like to turn people away... so we’d love to expand premises and the Enchanted Tree brand."