We reopened our doors to families on Monday 1st June 2020 and we are amazed at how well the children have adapted to our new ‘ways’.
Nursery life has gone in a new direction and we are passionate about ensuring we provide a safe, calm environment embracing the changes we have to make as an early years setting.
One of which was parents were asked not to come into the setting, handing their children over to us at the main door and then collecting them from there at the end of their session as a social distancing measure. This has been very successful, and we have welcomed the children back with lots of happy faces!
We removed our soft toys, soft furnishings and the smaller harder to clean resources but we had many ideas & activities to keep the little ones busy.
We made the most of all our spaces and although we are keeping in our ‘bubbles’ – we strive to maintain some normality into our days – we want to hear their laughter, see their smiles and love to listen to their little voices as they tell us their news.
As practitioners, we feel passionate about reducing the stress and anxiety around children, so we are conscious about being calm whilst also highlighting the necessity of hygiene such as an increased need for hand washing. We do this in a fun way, making up new words to songs that children love such as Baby Shark. This, along with role modelling, keeps the children engaged.
Outdoor play is a strong ethos of Granby Nurseries, we believe that it is an essential part of a child’s development as it provides freedom, develops creativity and curiosity, allows risk taking and allows the use of all senses.
We have re looked at our practice outdoors and strengthened it further to ensure children spend more optimal time in the outdoor environment making good use of all the spaces we have. This has provided many learning and calming opportunities such as daily yoga and listening to environmental sounds.