City dignitaries attended the official opening of the new Kumon Educational centre on St Giles Street.

Kumon Educational is a supplementary education provider that offers maths and English study programmes for children of all ages and abilities, influenced by a Japanese method of learning developed in the 1950s.

Toru Kumon set out to create worksheets for his son who was struggling with maths in 1954 and now over 4.3m students are now learning with the Kumon method all over the world.

Lord Mayor of Norwich Tom Dylan - who spent three years teaching English in Japan - was joined by Norwich MPs Chloe Smith and Simon Wright, as well as Norwich-born children's author Alexander Gordon Smith for the opening.

The centre already supports over 100 children, as centre manager Jennifer Clark explained: 'Kumon is known worldwide for its success in developing children's learning. With the opening of our spacious new centre in the heart of Norwich we are hoping to share this opportunity and enable many more children to access our maths and English programmes.'

Mr Smith marked the official opening as he cut a special Kumon cake to a round of applause from the parents and children that attended. He is best known as the author of the 'Escape From Furnace' series and was happy to support the new centre, saying: 'Like the Kumon ethos, I believe that every child has limitless potential given the right support and conditions.

'This is a great opportunity to celebrate the importance and joy of reading, writing and stories in general. It has been great to meet the Kumon team and see all the wonderful work they're doing to encourage a love of reading.

'It was a joy to hear even the youngest children discussing how much they love to read and I feel honoured to be a part of the day.'

For more information call 0800 854 714 or visit www.kumon.co.uk