Nursery drops separation by age
A Yorkshire nursery has scrapped the baby room to introduce a new open-plan area where all children from birth to five mix together.
Julie White, owner of Bents Farm Day Nursery near Halifax, said Ofsted inspectors who had approved and supported the system had told her they were not aware of any other nurseries operating this way.
Mrs White told Nursery World, 'Children are able to go where they want. You can see already how relaxed and independent the children are. It's more like home.'
The nursery was re-registered last month with ratios as for under-twos throughout, and four more staff were taken on.
Mrs White, who has run the nursery for 15 years and started her career as a childminder, said, 'Even though we can have 60 children here, it's still a family.'
The idea for mixing up the age groups came when she and her colleagues visited other settings while studying for their Foundation Degrees.
'It makes you reflect on your own practice. Children can have as many as three transitions before they start school. At some nurseries children move into different rooms on their birthday, but they may not be ready in terms of development or they may have been ready to move sooner.'
The nursery has expanded into a new open-plan barn, which allows all the children to move freely throughout the building following their individual interests rather than staying in one room.
They also use one existing room in the original farmhouse, which has been extended.
Mrs White said children could now have the same key person throughout their time at nursery, and siblings could share the same key person.
'We have six sets of twins here. This approach also means they get a chance to be away from each other if they want to,' she added.
Early years consultant Anne O'Connor agreed with the idea of using the same key person throughout a child's early years.
'It's the ultimate in terms of the key person approach, which is to remove transitions between birth to five,' she said. 'One aspect is the development of a "family group". Each new child who comes in becomes part of the group.'
Ofsted were not able to officially confirm whether Bents Farm's approach was unique.
A spokesperson said, 'We do not record information in such a way as to be able to identify particular providers who have an unusual or interesting way of running their setting.'
