News

Monday 1 December 2008

'Great outdoors' nursery

Pioneering idea for new type of nursery

A mum who thinks children spend too much time indoors at nursery and has labelled it a form of 'child abuse' has opened her own nursery with a difference.

Cathy Bache has opened Britain's first outdoor pre-school for under-fives. The idea came to her when she lived in Norway – when she walked through the woods with her own children she realised they seemed to be having more fun instead of being indoors in a nursery. Now she has opened a completely outdoor nursery, the Secret Garden Outdoor Centre at Letham, near Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland.

'It's almost a form of child abuse to keep a child indoors every day,' former nursery teacher Ms Bache told the Independent. 'When I was in the nursery school, I used to leave the door open, and 90 percent of the time 90 percent of the children would choose to play outside.' Her idea is based on some nursery schools in Norway and Canada. The nursery opened in September and has 15 pupils. Parents are told their children will be outdoors whatever the weather. The nursery's main building is just a shed, and the children are taken for a walk up a hill to a 'base camp' – they take a rest in hammocks while teachers tell stories. Some of the parents take their child for one day, but others have booked more days per day. One of the parents said: 'In comparison to the other days of the week, when my son is in an indoor nursery, it is obvious that a whole other side of who he is, is expressed in the woods.'

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