Business development: Nursery moves into consultancy

Little Learners Childcare, based in Corby, has had two outstanding inspections since it was founded four years ago by mother and daughter team Ruth White and Sam Evans. The nursery's unique selling point is its outdoor facilities - which have been so popular with other settings that it has launched a consultancy off the back of them.

The space has an outside classroom or 'exploration room', a decked area with canopy and shading that children use all year. There is also an art barn, a purpose-built insulated log cabin where a resident artist operates five days a week and to which children can retreat in cold weather.

The other three rooms are an 'investigation room' used for experiments, housing a light box, overhead projector and other science equipment; a 'communication room' with a book corner, role-play corner and writing area; and a 'creation room', home to a large construction area and art and crafts.

The children move in free flow around the rooms (there are 88 on any one day though this comprises all ages) supervised by a total of 48 staff. Five staff members have a Level 6, and two of these have Early Years Professional Status. Another three have or are in training for Level 5.

Ms Evans says, 'The exploration room is resourced with mostly natural and recycled items which we are continually adding to. We use whatever resources and found objects we can get our hands on. Families also bring in items - one grandparent brought in the rolls used to hold electric cable. We have a mud kitchen and for writing we have a large varnished wood slice and tree stumps with blackboard paint.

'Parents choose whether they want their child to be based in our outdoor classroom or not - we usually operate a waiting list as it is a popular choice. We do provide snow suits and gloves as well as Little Learners fleeces.'

In cold weather children sometimes retreat to the art barn, where they can take part in therapeutic art using a wide variety of materials. Ms Evans says, 'The artist doesn't have key children, so doesn't have to do planning or learning journeys and can really focus on leading children through exploration.' The artist also moves around the setting, sometimes working in the baby room.

The exploration room was suggested by Little Learners staff who were inspired by a day trip to Reflections Day Nursery in Worthing. In turn, the consultancy came about when the nursery received a lot of enquiries from local settings about its outdoor set-up.

Ms Evans says, 'There is not a lot of training out there and we thought that as a team we could help people who want to improve settings.'

The company held its first training event in October, a three-hour Saturday session called 'An introduction to play and learning in the great outdoors' and priced at £20.

The course aims to help settings use natural and recycled materials outdoors and promote outdoor learning through play, while following children's interests and meeting the EYFS requirements. Ms Evans says it also looks at the difference between child and adult-led activities, while staff aim to tailor the course to each setting by asking staff to describe their own outdoor settings and how they are used.