Nursery facilities in Edinburgh
Our facilities are split across two buildings. Little City caters for our youngest children aged 0 to 28 months, whilst City is set up to receive children aged from 2 years until school age.
Each building has a number of large playrooms, spacious garden areas, a sensory room, sleep rooms, a parents room, offices, a staff room, a kitchen and a laundry room. We also have a brand new state of the art security system which controls our door entry system, has CCTV monitoring of sleep areas at Little City, and allows all the rooms in each building to speak to each other or to a manager.
Little City Nursery for children aged 0 to 28 months
Little City has four purpose built playrooms complete with nappy changing units, a sleep room and a large sensory room equipped with UV lights, a projector, glitterball, bubble tube and fibre optic lights. It also has two outdoor garden areas with small climbing frames, a swing, large bean bags, loose parts play, sand and water play, and a variety of outdoor toys. We also have a comfortable parents room which can be used for breast feeding.
Our baby room, Caterpillars, caters for children aged 0 to 17 months and offers a variety of stimulating sensory and age appropriate experiences, including sand and water experiences, loose parts play, a home corner, a story area and a sensory area. It has its own sleep room across the landing with cots and with CCTV and sound monitor.
The Butterflies room is for children aged 17 to 20 months, and the largest playroom is the Busy Bees room for the oldest children at Little City aged 20 to 28 months. Both of these rooms offer loose parts play, sand and water play, crafts and painting, sensory experiences, a story corner, a home corner, construction and small world experiences and have direct garden access.
The ratio of adults to children throughout all of our Little City rooms is 1:3.
City Nursery for children aged 2 years to school age.
Our oldest children are accommodated in our City Building, which has three large playrooms, a quiet room known as the cocoon, a large dining room, a large outdoor garden area, a sensory room and comfortable parents room.
The garden area has a large climbing frame with slide, stairs, bridge, climbing wall and cosy den areas underneath, a mud kitchen, loose parts play, sand pit, water play, and a planting and growing area, as well as lots of space for physical play, and is equipped with a number of trikes, scooters, and ride-in cars. We also have an outdoor classroom complete with lighting and heating.
Additionally, we have access to a small woodland area at the rear of the nursery where we have set up a forest classroom. Children visit here to engage with learning in the outdoors and enjoy inspirational, stimulating, hands on outdoor learning experiences including den building, making and playing with swings, hammocks, climbing trees, playing with organic materials, outdoor games etc. They are supported throughout by staff to manage their own risk safely.
The Ladybirds room caters for children aged 2 to 3 years, and is bright, and inviting. It has an exciting messy play area offering a number of sensory and creative experiences including sand and water trays, painting easel, chalkboard, playdough table and crafts and gluing table. There is a construction and small world area with block play and loose parts play, a fun home corner and dressing up area, a cosy story corner with a selection of age appropriate books and a small den for children to play and have quiet time, a puzzles table, and a mark making table with crayons, pencils, pens, different coloured paper, rulers, etc. Ladybirds room also has a nappy changing station, child sized toilets and sinks and facilities for potty training. The ratio of staff to children in this room is 1:4.
Our two largest play rooms, the Sun Room and the Moon Room, together with the cocoon quiet room are for the older children aged 3 years up to school age and form our preschool department where we follow the Curriculum for Excellence. Experiences and outcomes are planned with children’s interests and learning in mind, and children are able to explore a variety of contexts and experiences through play supported by our dedicated staff team in a safe environment where children are encouraged to learn to manage their own risks.
Facilities include a large ‘messy area’ with sand, water and mixing trays where children can self select resources including measuring jugs, buckets, spades, moulds, trowels, sieves, boats etc. There is also a large painting easel which can accommodate several children at once, junk modelling materials, a playdough table, and crafts and gluing tables.
In the maths area we have resources for counting, sorting, and number recognition as well as resources to support children to explore and learn about other mathematical concepts through play such as size, volume, weight and measurement, pattern, time, money and 2D and 3D shapes.
In our literacy area and throughout the Early Learners rooms we have resources to encourage exploration of mark making and writing including pencils, crayons, felt markers, pens, different colours and sizes of paper and card, envelopes, notebooks, stickers, jotters, rulers, rubbers etc. Children are also provided with opportunities and resources to practice story telling, share their news, join in with songs and rhymes, and explore group games, dancing, and other expressive and artistic pursuits.
We have a huge variety of organic and man made loose parts and other materials available for the children to explore, utilise, create and construct with including large and small wooden blocks, magnetic shapes, lego, pasta shapes, pine cones, wooden curtain rings, metal parts, wooden bobbins, sticks, clay, pebbles, corks, bottle lids etc, and a spacious construction area in which to play with these. There is also a home corner with dolls, prams, a child sized kitchen area, seating etc. and dress up materials and costumes where the children can engage in imaginative role play.
The ratio of staff to children in this area is 1:8.