The Environment
We are a 49 place Childcare. The space is divided into three rooms and provides light, spacious indoor environments. There are exciting outdoor environments, where the children have access to sand, water, a swing, dens and more gross motor activities. All our furniture and equipment have been carefully chosen to ensure the children have the best possible start in life, surrounded by beautiful, mostly wooden resources. Whenever possible, we take advantage of natural lighting and play a variety of music from around the world to create a calm, relaxed atmosphere for both children and adults to work and play together.
The Baby Room
The Baby Room is a beautiful spacious room with space for 9 babies aged three months to two years, to play and explore safely. Most of our furniture is wooden, with many resources stored in beautiful baskets. We have a wide selection of toys and equipment that will stimulate and challenge your baby. There is cosy indoor sleeping place, including two cots and a snuggle nest, in a calm, quiet corner. We have invested in a ‘Kinderwagon’, which is a large pram for 6 babies to go out for a walk together! The Kinderwagon offers babies and young children the opportunity to be outdoors, whilst at the same time enjoy the social experience of being together.
The Pre-School Room
The Pre-School Room is much larger, with space for 40 children aged two to five years. The space is divided into two rooms with a beautiful piazza in the middle which is an atrium flooded with natural light from a glass ceiling above! The rooms are parted with bi-folding doors, opening up to form a large free flowing room where children come together to share their play, and interact socially. We have organised the space into areas where the children can play and learn, moving freely throughout the day. There is a block area, home corner, dressing up bay, water/sand tray, mark-making area, interactive whiteboard, cosy book corner, creative ‘workshop’, musical instruments, malleable materials, small world. We provide a cosy sleep area for those children who need to rest throughout the day, respecting their individual sleep pattern. We also have an outdoor sleeping space for two more children/babies, in our Danish imported Krybber, where children can sleep cosy and warm in a snuggle bag. We believe it is important for children to sleep in the fresh air.
The Outdoors
The Pre-school rooms have two secure outdoor environments, which are partially undercover. One garden offers access to the outdoor sleeping cots (Krybber), a swing and a small area with a picket fence perfect for den building or cosying up with a story. Both gardens have planters for growing herbs and flowers, a sand pit and access to flowing water. The children have direct access to both gardens via patio doors. Babies access both of these gardens regularly, the babies and children will come together to share their play and interact socially. There will be occasions when a member of staff can take a small group of children into the larger Nursery School garden, offering opportunities for further challenge and a chance to play with slightly older children. We are extremely lucky to have an allotment around the corner from us, where together we explore and experience the elements, seasons, weather conditions and look closely at nature throughout the year. Children are given opportunities to become real explorers of nature, finding out about our local community and its wild spaces, as well as learning new skills, techniques and a whole new language about nature. There is a cabin on the allotment which houses resources we need and doubles up as a shelter in extreme weather conditions.
