News

“At every turn in the new building there is an opportunity for play”

9th March 2021

We had a great first week in our new Early Years’ building. Bernadett Rankasz, Head of Early Years’, reflects on the difference the space will make.

As well as giving us the opportunity to reach more families in the South East London and Kent area, the new building provides five bright and spacious rooms to run our sessions. For current Covid-19 protocol, the space allows us to maintain social distancing when running essential group sessions. The additional space means that we have clearly defined, designated areas for physical play, messy play, role play as well as a reading corner and sensory room. Having separate spaces creates more learning opportunities for the children, encouraging communication to choose where they want to play next.

Our large meeting room is equipped with gorgeous furniture donated to us by Kinnarps. This room will be the setting of many parent discussion groups in the future. Crucially the size will allow us to conduct these sessions in a safe and socially distanced way so parents can continue to access support.

Having our kitchen gives us the opportunity to set up cooking and baking sessions for the families. Children will learn essential everyday skills such as creating loads of bubbles doing the washing up, mixing pastry or making nice round bread rolls!

“Each session has the potential to offer something new for our families”

One of our favourite areas in the new building is the beautiful little garden. This is the first time that we’ve had a garden space for the service. Our gorgeous outdoor space will be used to smell the flowers, watch the wind-wheels spinning around, observe the birds coming for lunch in our bird feeders and looking for minibeasts. The parents of a member of staff have kindly given up their time to clear the garden and replant the flowerbeds. They are also designing a hand-crafted mud kitchen for the children to enjoy. With staff wellbeing also being a high priority, the sensory garden will be used by our amazing Early Years’ team to have their lunch, practice mindfulness or just relax during their break when the weather is nice.

At every turn in the new building there is an opportunity for play and learning. Each session has the potential to offer something new for our families. We look forward to the years of learning and fun in our new home. We are so grateful for everyone who helped us to get to this very important milestone in our service development! Bernadett Rankasz

Find out more about our Early Years’ service here. You can also support our work and help keep Early Years’ free for our families by making a donation.