Nursery expands with environmentally-friendly classroom

The Wendy House Day Nursery in Wythall has opened a modular, airtight and insulated wooden building after receiving £230,000 funding from its local authority.

Worcester County Council invited early years education providers to bid for funding to help expand their provision to support delivery of the 30 hours free childcare, using money from the Department for Education’s Early Years Capital Fund.

The Wendy House Day Nursery’s Foundation Unit pre-school provision, which won Nursery World’s Business Development Award in 2016, was so over-subscribed that managers decided to apply for funding to make space for more children in view of the expansion to 30 hours.

On securing the funding, the nursery added the money to some of its own investment to employ Passive Schools, a manufacturing company specialising in low-energy and sustainable education buildings, to design and build the new classroom.

The completed classroom features energy efficient systems which maintain a consistent and comfortable temperature, ensuring minimal need for conventional heating, limited carbon emissions and lower bills, according to managing director of the nursery, Victoria Vann.

Ms Vann added, ‘We are based on farmland and were lucky that the landowner supported us in building on it. Passive Schools manufacture and install very quickly so the whole process, from applying for funding to going live, was just over a year, which was great.’

The eco-classroom, which provides space for over 30 children of pre-school age, was officially opened by Councillor Geoff Denaro, leader of Bromsgrove District Council.

The classroom is equipped with natural materials, and featured palm trees and a jungle theme for the launch.  

Councillor Denaro said, ‘I’m delighted to see a Bromsgrove nursery taking the lead and building for a brighter, more sustainable future. We’ve seen all levels of Government work together to remove obstacles and help make this happen. From the national Government’s funding, related to its expansion of provision of nursery hours, to the county’s educational support, and then our flexibility at the planning stages has added up to an excellent outcome for local families.’

The Wendy House Day Nursery, which was established in 2007, comprises two settings at Wythall and Lynwood in the West Midlands, with places for over 300 children, and plans to open a third setting in the grounds of a local Academy.

Ms Vann said, ‘We are very excited about the launch of the eco-classroom. It brings together so many different strands to cement The Wendy House’s position as a leader in setting the standard for early years education; we can support the Government’s drive to provide more funded places for working families, we can create something completely unprecedented in the area, and we can continue our expansion.

‘Without this funding, our eco-classroom would not have been possible, therefore we are delighted that our application was successful and our ambition to create more spaces for three- and four-year-olds can be realised in such an innovative way.’