3.1 Challenges faced at Dimples Day Nursery

POLLY BOLSHAW: Hello, Sandra and Charlotte. It's lovely to meet you. First and foremost, could you introduce yourselves to me please?

SANDRA ROLES: I'm Sandra Roles. I own and manage Dimples Day Nursery in Dartford, Kent. And this year is our 20th anniversary.

CHARLOTTE ROLES: And I'm Charlotte Mare or Roles. And I'm Sandra's daughter. So I'm one of the deputy managers. And so I've been involved in the nursery since when I very first started secondary school when mum was opening the nursery and then decided to do my degree in early years and become part of management, etc so.

POLLY BOLSHAW: Thank you. That's wonderful. And I've got some questions for you today about the challenges that you face taking babies outside in your setting. And my first question for you is, what challenges and risks have you faced when considering opportunities for babies and toddlers to engage with the outdoors?

SANDRA ROLES: We have always valued the outdoors. My children grew up on a farm. So we're set in 8 acres, so it was a natural thing for us to do. And I retrained and did additional training as a Forest School leader with several other staff quite some years ago now. So we initially did that with our preschool children.

But didn't even consider to do anything as extensively with our babies. And it was one of the practitioners that suggested that it's not fair, and they should be able to go outside. And they should be able to do more things. And I just pooh-poohed it and said parents will never consent. And they did.

So that actually was never really a challenge, was it? That was something that the staff said we think we should do it. I said no, I don't think so, but you can try. And it worked. I think the challenge was some of the older staff did not want to free flow. They didn't want to go outside. They didn't see the value in it.

And occasionally, we have a parent that doesn't want to. But we are very mindful that we are a Forest School. So we just told them don't start with us then. So we're very strict on that. So we actually say, this is what we do. If you don't want to do it, we're not the right nursery for you.

CHARLOTTE ROLES: We are actually about to just change our consents and our terms and conditions to reflect everything that mum's just said, because we-- so that it's just built into our ethos completely right from when a parent looks around and signs up, so that they just know that it's--

SANDRA ROLES: They don't have an option to say they can't go offsite. It is-- the nursery itself we do so much outside anyway. The free flow happens anyway. But because offsite is very important to us as well, we've got a really good woodland near us, so we take the babies there. We take them to a park.

We go to Bluewater, which is an hour's walk, in buggies. And then they go and feed the ducks. We value that really, really greatly. So we don't want parents to say no. But we now say if you don't sign up to it, then obviously this isn't the right nursery for you.