Gingerbread House Day Nursery offers children the best of everything, and our environments are no exception. We have brilliant spaces, both indoors and outdoors, all of which are well-equipped and excellently resourced.
Indoor Environments
Our indoor environments are tailored to the ages and stages of development of the children in them. We have separate, age-specific rooms that are all decorated in a calming and tranquil colour palette and furnished with natural, wooden items, all of which are Early Years specific. Each piece of equipment is thoughtfully chosen for its scope to offer learning and development through play and enjoyment. Our resources are selected and included to provide children with the maximum opportunities to experience a huge diversity of activities.
We ensure that our rooms are laid out to have areas designed and set up to facilitate the meeting of each individual child’s needs at our South Croydon nursery at all times throughout the day – so we have relaxation and rest areas, structured activity areas, arts areas, story areas, physical areas etc. It’s very important to us that every child is supported and encouraged to pursue their own interests so we offer children the freedom to follow their own path each day rather than forcing every child to go through regimented schedules regardless of their individuality.
Our rooms reflect the progression the children make through their Early Years – with our younger children’s environments being markedly different to the environments for our Pre-School children. We love that we are able to offer such advancement to our children, so closely aligned to their development. We know how specific each stage is and exactly what to provide environmentally to allow each child to get the most out of each stage of this magnificent period in their lives.
Outdoor Environments
We have a wonderful garden, and our children love to get outside and enjoy it at every opportunity. We have many specific features in it – a Mud Kitchen, large sandpit, a Sensory Garden, and dens and cosy areas such as our wooden tepee – as well as space for the children to enjoy free play and active games.
We like to make sure that our children can enjoy being outside in lots of different ways, not just that they’re outside to “let off steam” before being brought back inside. That’s why we have put such effort into creating the dens and cosy spaces, such as our large wooden tepee (most of our children’s favourite place), as it allows us to encourage them to rest and relax in the fresh air, interact together and with Practitioners through story telling or chatting, and to be able to enjoy time in their own company such as when reading. Our other outdoor resources and equipment allow them to enjoy unleashing their imaginations outdoors, to develop skills in a variety of areas, to stimulate their senses – and of course they get to run around and let loose as well.