Provision
Nursery on site for study
A £2m centre for research into child development will link theory with practice at an on-site nursery.
Glyndwr University Vice-Chancellor Michael Scott at the opening of the nursery
The Centre for the Child, Family and Society at Glyndwr University's Wrexham campus in north Wales houses a 91-place nursery run by Active Childcare.
The new nursery building has enabled the Little Scholars nursery to almost double the number of places to 91.
The new centre, owned by the university and funded by the Welsh Assembly government, includes seminar and observation rooms. It was officially opened last week by Huw Lewis, deputy minister for children.
Professor of Childhood and Family Studies Karen Graham, who is head of the centre and a director of the nursery, said, 'What we set out to achieve is a facility that would offer children and the current and future workforce something exceptional.
'One of the most important aspects of the facility is that it offers a strong learning opportunity to bring together competence, knowledge and experience in a workplace setting.'
As well as working in childcare rooms, students and researchers will be able to carry out observations through three one-way vision panels controlled solely by the nursery, for purposes agreed by the university. Researchers can also record activity using a flexible, built in-recording system, within a carefully controlled ethical framework.
There is no through access from the nursery to the observation areas, to ensure children's safety.
Professor Graham said, 'It offers students the opportunity to observe the child without any interference in the child's experience.' She added that children tend to respond differently when they know they are being watched, and that watching the children unobserved would increase the opportunity for students to see 'the lightbulb moments' in children's learning and development and witness 'the sort of activity that happens in settings that often goes unseen' in busy rooms.
Research and observations will have to be approved by the university's ethics committee and parents will have to give consent.
Director of Active Childcare Peter Graham said, 'The whole nursery has been designed for a child's needs, even down to the under-floor heating, which means there are no hazards like radiators and pipes.'
He added, 'Parents will always have worries about their children being observed. But we showed parents round and they're really keen on the research side of it because they know if we get good research we will feed it back into the nursery's practice.'
He said the nursery has worked closely with the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales right from the outset. 'It's highly regulated. We involved them before we even started to build. From our perspective, no ad-hoc viewing is possible. Everything has to be done by prior arrangement and we have to give consent.'
