3.2 Overcoming challenges at Dimples Day Nursery

POLLY BOLSHAW: Is there anything else that you've done to be able to overcome some of the risks and challenges that you faced in taking babies and young children outside?

SANDRA ROLES: I think quite a lot of the outdoor space, we have concrete areas because you need hard standing on places so that you can do certain activities and to prevent the mud. Two of our baby rooms have Astroturf, and I don't like Astroturf. It's never an alternative to grass, but we found that, because we do so much outside, they wore the grass away. And then it becomes dangerous because it's slippy and really wet.

So they have Astroturf for practicality rather than because we think it's a safer option. But we really stress with staff that they have to take them out on the grass.

CHARLOTTE ROLES: And we are lucky because we are set in the eight acres, so they have their immediate outdoor space might be the concrete and the Astroturf. But right next to them, they have two gardens immediately next to them that are grass. And then they can also take them into the Forest School field and our other fields out the back. Whereas, again, that was I guess to overcome for another setting that didn't have that. It would be something maybe if they still kept a patch of grass at the back if they weren't able to have other access.

SANDRA ROLES: And I think some parents-- going back to the challenges-- some parents don't like concrete in the garden. Not our parents now, but in the past, they would say, oh, why haven't you got soft core or why haven't you got Astroturf? And it's really important that children learn to negotiate hard surfaces. And if they fall over and grate their knees, that they learn that it hurts. So they're more careful.

So actually, all of our parents are really good with that now. And you can't really ride a bike on Astroturf. Even a baby can't scoot along. Charlotte's got a 13-month-old, and it's hard to scoot along on a scooter, a sitting scooter on Astroturf. It's much easier. So they need that.

They also need different surfaces. So we've got hills. We've actually deliberately-- when we dig something out, we deliberately make a hill and then cover it with grass. So all of those things are really important. And it's good because it saves money taking the muck away. So that's an added bonus. But then they also get other surfaces to climb.

It is expensive. We're very lucky that we've got my partner Gary who makes us so much stuff because we have multiple sand pits. We've got bridges for them to climb up. We've got climbing frames with the whole-- even the baby rooms have them. He tends to make something for one room, maybe the preschool rooms, and then the whole nursery wants one. So he has to then gradually start making a smaller version of it from the baby rooms.

SPEAKER 3: [INAUDIBLE].

SPEAKER 2: , Yeah reading nooks. They've got dens. They've got cubbies that they can go and climb into. We've got willow structures. But it didn't happen overnight. It's been a real long process.