Spacial requirements for early years provision
Extract from Coram Family and Childcare Trust report
Your site will have a huge impact on your nursery provision. Depending on the previous use of the chosen site, there may be substantial work that you will need to do in order to get the space ready to fulfil your groups’ vision for early education.
How much space do you have available? Ofsted make some requirements for the space, including that the setting has 2.3 – 3.5 m2 per child, depending on age with children under 2 years requiring the most space. This space requirement excludes space not normally used by the children, such as storage areas, staff areas or hallways. If your nursery is looking after children under two, there should be a separate baby room for them, but these children should still have contact with older children. Ofsted also requires that children have access to outside space every day (weather permitting), either on site or through planned trips out. There should also be separate space for children who want to play quietly or sleep. Beyond this, the design of your space, including the décor, play equipment and flow is down to the preferences of your group.
How will your space support your educational approach? Your space needs to support the educational approach that your nursery will take. Working as a group to design the space can be a useful way to frame discussions about different approaches and help to make it easier to think through how they will work in practice.It is important to consider the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements when designing your space. These give details of the requirements that early years settings should meet to support young children’s education and development. How you arrange the space should help you to connect with and support the EYFS.
How will you engage parents, children and professionals in learning about and developing the space? It works well for the design of the space to be an iterative process. Find opportunities for children to play and test the space as you go. This helps ideas develop, your group to learn more and to help develop a wider understanding of what will work best. It is good to invite local families into the space as early as possible so that they can be part of the journey designing how the setting will look and work. Make sure that the space is safe and welcoming when families first come in, but try to avoid making decisions about equipment and set up too early so that the community are able to play an active role in making decisions about what your nursery will look like. This may mean redecorating or removing some equipment, including if the setting has been used for childcare previously, and only having essential furniture.
This process can go hand in hand with the process for deciding your educational approach and priorities for how children’s development will be supported. The toys and equipment in your nursery will play a crucial role in supporting this and so it is important that decisions about both the approach and design of your space and equipment are made in tandem. It can be useful to involve the Nursery Manager and you team of childcare professionals in these decisions if the timings work. There will often be some time between the Nursery Manager being recruited and the registration visit from Ofsted and so it may be possible for them to work with parents to make these decisions.
How much equipment do you really need? At Friendly Families Nursery, we were keen to welcome the community into the space as quickly as possible in order to build community ownership. Before we could do this, we needed to have a simple ‘shell’ space and some basic furniture. We tried to limit how much furniture and equipment we bought at this time as we wanted these decisions to be made by the parents involved, but we also wanted it to be a space that was comfortable for parents to attend with their children. This gave the opportunity to see how children and parents interacted with the space which helped with making decisions about how to use the space. We worked with Co:DB to involve local families in co-designing the space and there is information about these workshops in other pages on this website. CO:DB had existing experience of designing quality play equipment. We also involved early years professionals to support the co-design process in order to ensure we were benefiting from their professional insight and training. Our aim had been to engage the nursery staff in this but the timeline for the recruitment process did not allow for this.
Summary
It is crucial that designing the space is done collaboratively with the parent group so that it is meeting their expectations and it provides an excellent opportunity to build a shared vision for your nursery and involve everyone in learning more about the Early Years Foundation Stage. Designing the space can also act as an excellent opportunity for you to get a wider group of parents involved and to promote the nursery to families who may use it in future. There are statutory guidelines on the amount and type of space that needs to be available and it is essential to be aware of these.
How much space do you have available? Ofsted make some requirements for the space, including that the setting has 2.3 – 3.5 m2 per child, depending on age with children under 2 years requiring the most space. This space requirement excludes space not normally used by the children, such as storage areas, staff areas or hallways. If your nursery is looking after children under two, there should be a separate baby room for them, but these children should still have contact with older children. Ofsted also requires that children have access to outside space every day (weather permitting), either on site or through planned trips out. There should also be separate space for children who want to play quietly or sleep. Beyond this, the design of your space, including the décor, play equipment and flow is down to the preferences of your group.
How will your space support your educational approach? Your space needs to support the educational approach that your nursery will take. Working as a group to design the space can be a useful way to frame discussions about different approaches and help to make it easier to think through how they will work in practice.It is important to consider the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements when designing your space. These give details of the requirements that early years settings should meet to support young children’s education and development. How you arrange the space should help you to connect with and support the EYFS.
How will you engage parents, children and professionals in learning about and developing the space? It works well for the design of the space to be an iterative process. Find opportunities for children to play and test the space as you go. This helps ideas develop, your group to learn more and to help develop a wider understanding of what will work best. It is good to invite local families into the space as early as possible so that they can be part of the journey designing how the setting will look and work. Make sure that the space is safe and welcoming when families first come in, but try to avoid making decisions about equipment and set up too early so that the community are able to play an active role in making decisions about what your nursery will look like. This may mean redecorating or removing some equipment, including if the setting has been used for childcare previously, and only having essential furniture.
This process can go hand in hand with the process for deciding your educational approach and priorities for how children’s development will be supported. The toys and equipment in your nursery will play a crucial role in supporting this and so it is important that decisions about both the approach and design of your space and equipment are made in tandem. It can be useful to involve the Nursery Manager and you team of childcare professionals in these decisions if the timings work. There will often be some time between the Nursery Manager being recruited and the registration visit from Ofsted and so it may be possible for them to work with parents to make these decisions.
How much equipment do you really need? At Friendly Families Nursery, we were keen to welcome the community into the space as quickly as possible in order to build community ownership. Before we could do this, we needed to have a simple ‘shell’ space and some basic furniture. We tried to limit how much furniture and equipment we bought at this time as we wanted these decisions to be made by the parents involved, but we also wanted it to be a space that was comfortable for parents to attend with their children. This gave the opportunity to see how children and parents interacted with the space which helped with making decisions about how to use the space. We worked with Co:DB to involve local families in co-designing the space and there is information about these workshops in other pages on this website. CO:DB had existing experience of designing quality play equipment. We also involved early years professionals to support the co-design process in order to ensure we were benefiting from their professional insight and training. Our aim had been to engage the nursery staff in this but the timeline for the recruitment process did not allow for this.
Summary
It is crucial that designing the space is done collaboratively with the parent group so that it is meeting their expectations and it provides an excellent opportunity to build a shared vision for your nursery and involve everyone in learning more about the Early Years Foundation Stage. Designing the space can also act as an excellent opportunity for you to get a wider group of parents involved and to promote the nursery to families who may use it in future. There are statutory guidelines on the amount and type of space that needs to be available and it is essential to be aware of these.