What's on
From family support, fitness classes and learning to art exhibitions, festivals and talks, our activities are wide and far reaching.
If you have passed the neighbourhood centre recently you may have noticed some new additions to our family and children centre outside play area. This year, alongside our nursery refurbishment – where we installed a new kitchen, replaced the flooring across the nursery and much more – we made major improvements to our outside space to ensure our family and children centre children have the best possible environment to learn in.
After successfully securing funding from Tesco’s Bags for Life and an investment from Coin Street Community Builders, we were able to fund an eco-friendly garden and new equipment to help extend the children’s learning from inside the classroom to outdoors as well.
As part of our garden upgrade we installed a colourful new shading structure to provided much needed shelter from the sun during the warm weather.
We have also provided sunken sandpits, a mud kitchen, music wall, work bench, assault course, a bug hotel and both permanent and portable planters.
On Friday 27 April, volunteers from local company Baringa and members from Groundwork environmental charity, helped the nursery children and staff green up our outdoor space. Despite the weather, the children enjoyed planting flowers, herbs and vegetables, ready to watch them grow over summer.
Our nursery team also came in on Saturday 28 April for a training session on outdoor learning. The training focused on fun and creative activities based on earth, fire, air and water. Highlights from the training included problem solving to make a water transporter from pipes and guttering that to carry water without it spilling. The staff are enjoying using their training in the nursery garden to support explorative outdoor play.
The 84-place nursery is part of the Ofsted Outstanding Coin Street family and children’s centre which provides a safe and friendly environment for parents, carers and their children to receive support and advice, access to health, education and training services. For older children, the centre offers Holiday Play Scheme as well as a wider programme of free and affordable activities for every age.