This week we visited the new nursery site again with our longstanding friends from Community Playthings. Community Playthings produce solid wood furniture and play equipment for nurseries and primary schools. Their products are beautifully designed to support play and creativity and Tom and Carol, both design experts, are helping us to think about the layout of our intergenerational nursery.
We now have a kitchen area in place and the quiet room completed. We talked together about the potential of the garden room, in particular, for rich and meaningful multigenerational experiences. The design, with double opening doors to the garden, maximises opportunity for free flow to the outdoors perfectly. It will enable us to encourage both children and older people to spend time together outdoors in the interconnected gardens and shared seating areas. The south facing aspect of the garden area will make it bright and sun-filled, enabling a range of planting, growing and nature projects.
We were really pleased to learn more from Community Playthings about their drive to ensure all of their products reach the ultimate in environmental standards as well as standing the test of time and durability. We discussed our shared commitment to sustainability and aims to plan our nursery curriculum using the UNICEF Sustainable Development Goals. This ambition supports the sustainable use of natural materials through:
- the use of renewable resources
- understanding of the importance of sustainable manufacturing processes
- a conscious move towards a more circular economy i.e. the use of durable, fixable, and recyclable resources
It also helps children to learn, from the earliest age, about the value and importance of making sustainable choices and understanding the impact of these for themselves and others.
Our morning with Tom and Carol was both reassuring and inspiring. Like us, they believe that every child deserves a safe, high quality learning environment where they feel at home, supported and loved. Our multi-generational approach extends this to welcoming older people too! To achieve this for both groups we are taking the greatest care in selecting equipment, furniture and resources! To this end we have extended Community Plaything’s strapline of Children Come First to:
