Enabling Environments: Outdoors - Hit the roof

It's a sunny August afternoon in west London and the children from Mace Montessori Hammersmith are preparing to eat lunch al fresco on the nursery's new roof garden.

Since the garden was completed at the beginning of August, the children have made the most of their new play area and have been outside every day, say nursery staff.

Pre-school leader Toni Bosch explains, 'The roof garden provides endless opportunities for outdoor play. To have something like this on our doorstep where the children can enjoy being outside is fantastic.

'The children love having the freedom to run around and ride on their bikes. The mural of the Owl and the Pussycat has proved very popular.'

Other features of the garden include a role-play area with a pretend kitchen and a phone box, a sensory panel, climbing equipment and a sports area where children can play basketball, tennis and football.

The nursery wanted to provide lots of opportunities for learning, so decided to incorporate a hopscotch and alphabet caterpillar on to the brightly coloured flooring, as well as creating a sheltered area of the garden where children can play in the winter.

To celebrate the opening of the roof garden, the nursery invited children and their families to an open day last month. The nursery's development manager Jon Lloyd says, 'The open day was really successful and lots of parents commented on how much they liked the roof garden. For some, it was the first chance they had to see the new outdoor area.

'Lots of the parents live in flats and don't have a garden, so it's nice for them to know their children can benefit from playing outside when they come to nursery.'

However, three months ago it was a different story. Without a garden or outside space, the nursery had to use the local park. Ms Bosch says, 'Ravenscourt Park is only a five-minute walk from the nursery, but it could take anything from 30 to 45 minutes to get there as the children obviously liked to stop and look at things.

'Carrying play equipment was a problem. With all the resources we had to bring for health and safety reasons, we could only carry a small selection of toys.'

BUILDING A FUTURE

Mace Montessori started planning the rooftop garden 16 months ago after struggling to find a solution to the lack of quality, safe and stimulating outdoor facilities at the chain's two nurseries in Hammersmith. While it had considered various options, including adapting the nursery yard, it decided that a roof garden was the only viable solution.

Jon Lloyd says, 'We had to apply to Hammersmith Council for planning permission to transform the sloping roof of the nursery into a garden. It was a lengthy process and we had to amend our plans several times because of mounting costs and complaints from neighbours.

'It took three months to build the garden. We wanted to cause minimal disruption to children, parents and staff, so kept the nursery open as normal. Fortunately, the builders were very co-operative and even agreed to take their lunch break during the children's afternoon nap.'

So that the children knew what was happening, nursery staff explained to them that Bob the Builder was coming in to make them a new play area on the roof.

'The children understood what was going on and kept asking the builders what they were doing', explains Ms Bosch. 'They were excited about the garden and they couldn't wait to see it finished.'

To keep the children's interest and to give them ownership of the play area, staff asked them what they would like in the roof garden. Their ideas included a slide, climbing frame, ball games and the more unusual 'ice-cream'. All ideas were taken seriously and most incorporated into the roof garden.

Deputy manager Kadidiata Choi says, 'The roof garden has opened up many possibilities. All the children can now play together, staff can take their lunch up there and we can hold meetings and events.'

Ms Choi says one of the best things about the garden is that staff don't have to worry about the children's safety crossing roads to get to the park or have to explain to them why they can't take their bikes for everyday outdoor play. The children still visit the park for nature walks and to learn about the environment.

The nursery hopes to introduce more equipment and activities to the roof garden this autumn. Plans include using the garden to teach children about the different seasons and, next summer, growing plants and sunflowers.