Here at Daybreak Nursery in Rickmansworth, on Shepherds Lane, we offer our children outstanding environments. With the guidance of our amazing Practitioners, these environments support and encourage children to thrive, grow and learn.
Our indoor environments are designed to be calm and tranquil, but with the capability to be transformed into places of excitement and fascination. We achieve this with neutral and natural colour schemes in each room – which provide a soft visual base for the children that promotes relaxation. We extend this natural theme with our light solid wood furniture, which creates a natural ‘feel’.
Our equipment extends over a huge range, and with a wide variety of purposes, to make sure that every child is given a path to optimal development in all areas – physical, social, emotional, mental, and intellectual. Our resources reinforce this, as well as bringing the children so much fun. We have the ability to offer a nearly endless array of different activities to the children, as our resources and equipment lend themselves to versatility, and our Practitioners are constantly seeking out new and inventive topics and tasks to engage the children with.
Our indoor environments are also designed to give every single child the support they need to discover who they are as an individual, get to know their own personality, and to explore and pursue their specific interests. We absolutely love getting to know every child for who they are, and then nurturing them on their own unique journey.
The lay-out of each of our age-specific rooms includes different areas within the room as a whole – we have cosy relaxation areas, where reading and story time can take place; we have messy areas for play with materials such as water trays, porridge, clay etc; we have active areas where children can really express themselves in movement even indoor; plus lots more, depending on the age range within each room. For example, our Pre-Schoolers have access to lots of arts and crafts in an art area, our babies have a Sensory area in their room, and our toddlers have a Nursery Gym to really explore and expand their movement.
Outdoors is the real highlight of our nursery, as we have an absolutely huge garden area. It is a key part of our ethos at Daybreak Nursery in Rickmansworth at Shepherds Lane, that we get the children outside to enjoy fresh air and nature at every possible opportunity. We have created an outdoor environment that allows them the freedom to let their imaginations loose, and create their own games.
Running and playing freely is one of the highlights of childhood, but we also offer them a wealth of outdoor features and resources to give them a fantastic range of outdoor experiences. Examples of these are the large climbing frame that we have – and our big sand pit. The climbing frame promotes the development and honing of our children’s physical skills, gives them the chance to see their world from a different aspect, and builds their confidence in themselves and their physical capabilities. It also gives them a structure to use for adventures, for games, and to bond deeply with each other and our Practitioners through trusting and helping each other overcome obstacles.
The big sand pit is a whole other world for the children once they’ve climbed in. They really experience playing with and using the sand in an extensive and immersive way. They seem to benefit hugely from – and be fascinated by – the process of translating ideas from their imagination to the mouldable material at their fingertips.