Enabling Environments: Outdoors - Making sense

Creating a sensory garden is the latest stage in the transformation of what was deemed by Ofsted an inadequate setting. Cambridge Day Nursery was able to make the jump from 'inadequate' to 'good' between 2009 and 2010 and continues to raise the quality of its provision.

Now under-twos at the 51-place setting in Cambridge can enjoy free-flow access to a sensory area divided into eight sections with:

• grass

• bark

• sand

• a glass mosaic

• mixed herbs

• astro turf

• pebbles

• tennis balls cemented into the ground.

'The idea behind the garden was to create exploratory areas that not all our children can experience at home,' says manager Rachel Watson, who has overseen much of the nursery reforms. 'We have children with very different home environments. Some live on boats, some in high-rise flats and some come from deprived areas, so not all of them had had these experiences.'

The nursery missed out on an Outcome Equality Inclusion grant to finance the project, so staff organised a charity auction to raise funds to support a local hospice, and the rest was spent on developing the garden.

The area used was formerly something of a 'dumping ground' for parking resources and buggies. As part of the redevelopment, the nursery raised the level of the garden to that of the entrance and fitted sliding doors to create easy, free-flow access for the nursery's youngest children.

'It now means that our babies can free-flow throughout their room into their own garden throughout the year,' says Ms Watson.

At the end of August, parents and the nursery's early years adviser attended the opening of the garden, featuring a Tatty Bumpkins session (a yoga-inspired movement class) and a tea party.

Since completion, the time that the under-twos now spend outdoors has doubled, with staff also reporting far higher levels of engagement and concentration among the children. Parents, too, are expressing an interest in their children's new outdoor space.

'I'd say 78 per cent of the children's time is now spent outside regardless of the weather,' says Ms Watson. 'It's never the same, as there are now so many opportunities for them to explore.

'The garden also provides opportunities for parents to ask and learn about outdoor play and how it can extend children's learning.'

MORE INFORMATION

• EYFS Best Practice: 'All about ... outdoor provision for under-threes
• ' by Jan White (Nursery World, 28 July 2010)

• www.tattybumpkin.com offers yogainspired movement classes

• For more information on Cambridge Day Nursery's transformation, see 'Management focus: Making a good transformation',