The Beach School won our Enabling Environments Award this year from a really strong shortlist, and is a brilliant example of using your surroundings to maximum effect.
There's no golden strand or idyllic cove, but the Severn Beach that staff and children visit has a whole range of stimulating resources and opportunities with its mud and stones, shingle and tidal changes.
Making fires, collecting driftwood, constructing dens, finding messages in bottles and learning about crabs and squid are just some of the activities that arise. It really makes you want to be there with the staff and children.
As concerns grow over a drive to increased formalisation and moving two-year-olds into schools, we need to highlight exciting early years practice such as the Beach School and make sure it doesn't get washed away like the children's footprints in the sand!
There are lots of other great examples of and ideas for appropriate and stimulating provision in this issue of Nursery World.
Find out about body doodles with Early Arts' new resources; create polar landscapes for wonderful role play sessions; and see how one nursery is forging community links with its local supermarket.
Anita M Hughes and Veronica Read, meanwhile, take an in-depth look at building positive relationships with parents, including 'The Impact of Love' - now there's a word that should be heard more in our debates and discussions about the future of the early years.
