With Her Majesty are (left) GSS partner Mark Stevens and Martin Crandon of North Somerset Council.
	The Queen unveils a mosaic made by the children. Left to right are GSS partners Michael Magri and Mark Stevens. Martin Crandon of North Somerset Council is on Mark's left.

Her Majesty the Queen visited one of the largest Children's Centres in the south-west of England on Friday 20 July. The state-of-the-art £1.5 million project at Ashcombe Primary School, Weston-super-Mare, combines early years' education with childcare, family support (including outreach to parents) and child and family health services.

Ashcombe Children's Centre has been designed by GSS Architecture, and is striking and extremely colourful. The superbly-equipped building has been designed like a doughnut - with a large central canopy similar to a circus "big top" providing a covered play area for the children. A sandpit surrounds the central column supporting the canopy, while the remainder of the area is covered with child-friendly artificial grass and numerous toys! The individual rooms and facilities all lead off of this central play area.

The new centre for North Somerset Council includes a 34-place full daycare nursery as well as a playgroup which works with children with learning difficulties and disabilities.

GSS partner Mark Stevens said, "We were delighted to have the opportunity to meet Her Majesty and we were pleased to see her taking such an interest in our building. Children's Centres are a very important development in this country, and we hope that this will help to set the standards for those to come."