Worksop nursery children to embrace the great outdoors thanks to new forest classroom facility
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Lime Tree Nursery in Carlton-in-Lindrick has opened phase one of the state-of-the-art development that aims to inspire toddlers with a love of learning through a connection with nature, caring for the environment, growing vegetables and looking after animals.
The project was given a major boost thanks to generous residents who responded to a social media appeal for building supplies and donations after lockdown meant materials to create the garden were in short supply. Worksop builders merchants Gibbs & Dandy also helped out with materials.
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Zoe Croot, nursery director said: “The reaction from the children and parents to the garden has been fabulous. We are so grateful to people in the community who saw our social media appeal and helped make this possible, there was a real sense of community spirit that helped us get this project off the ground and 75 percent of the materials were donated thanks to this.
"This area provides a great happy medium as we wanted to be able to offer that outside learning space for children but also wanted to have the option for children to also be able to go outside unlike a forest school where it’s outdoors 24/7.
"We are hoping to start work on phase two next month that will include a firepit area for toasting marshmallows and wildlife ponds so it’s exciting times ahead.
"We hope to open the garden up to the wider community to use and for other schools to make use of.
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“During lockdown a lot of children have spent a lot of time cooped up indoors so this area provides us with a fantastic place to widen our curriculum and extra curricular activity programmes and give our children and the community a great place to explore and enjoy.”
As well as the new outdoor forest garden children are also eagerly awaiting the arrival of Bobby the Bulldog – a new play therapy dog who will visit the nursery to help children struggling with anxiety and attachment issues resulting from lockdown.
The 11 week-old puppy is currently in training and will visit the nursery’s five different locations across Rotherham and Worksop on a regular basis as part of the initiative.
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