Dear Parents and Carers
We are excited to inform you that many great things are happening here at Nursery enter name. As you may have noticed we have been making a few changes from removing bright colours to a more neutral décor. We are moving away from traditional manufactured plastic toys, to resources that inspire curiosity, awe and wonder. Gone are our bright flooring / walls , replaced by a calmer and more tranquil environment .
We are also delighted to inform you we have also embarking on, an amazing Accreditation scheme to become one of the very first nurseries in the country to follow ‘The Curiosity Approach.’ You can join their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/curiousityapproach. This approach is specifically for forward thinking settings like our, who want to create beautiful environments for our incredible children. Inspiring them to be inquisitive and curious, creating the “thinkers and doers” of the future.
So why have we embarked on this incredible transformation of our setting?
Question: Have you ever been to the clothes sales, keen to go to the seek out a bargain? You enter the store and immediately the atmosphere changes:
• Music plays methodically in the back ground, not hearing it, not interested in it. However, it is there filling your ears relentlessly.
• Clothes hang from every station, brightly coloured miss-matched items, all dragged out from every season and displayed to catch your eye and attention. No order to the arrangement, no purpose, just there to show your everything that has been on offer, over the past few months and sometimes years.
• Clothes or other random items fill every shelf, surface, just in case it meets your style or it might interest you in some way.
• A whole array of different, random pieces to meet the wide variety of tastes, sizes, styles and ensure the store meets the diverse needs of the its wide ranging customers.
• Stuff is everywhere, messy unorganised chaos, as people toss items aside, with no regard for their value or replacing it back on the hanger it once came from or the shelf it once was displayed on.
• People move quickly, their behaviour rude, curt and with no regard for the fellow shoppers that share this environment.
• The music still drones on, like a constant earworm – ever relentless, ever playing!
• The artificial lighting is set to bright, glaring constantly to show case the items within.
• The shopper next to you, pushes you out the way to grab the item on the shelf, shoving her pointy elbows in your side as she makes a grasp for that last remaining sale!
How are you feeling? Can you relate to such a shopping experience? Did you want to get OUT pretty sharpish? Did you want to escape as quickly as you entered, not interested, not engaged, not focused on the wealth of items on offer?
Are you experiencing sensory overload?
Well this is what it can feel like for some children when they are bombarded with too much colour and sensory noise. They cannot concentrate, they get frustrated ratty and their behaviour can deteriorate. Melt downs or temper tantrums can happen for no particular reason, other than they just want a bit of mind space, time to be able to think and process all the other things they are expected to understand and manage.
Don’t be mistaken, children love colour. However it cannot be used to the detriment of their emotional and mental wellbeing and we will inject it carefully into our environment through the resources we use and how we display work.
We need to provide our incredible little learners with the best start in life, allowing them the opportunity to time, space and the clarity to enjoy the amazing activities we have on offer.
We do hope you like the changes we are making, further newsletters will follow with regards the introduction of more natural open ended resources, loose parts and authentic materials.
I hope you will support us on our journey to becoming a Curiosity Approach setting. This will be a wonderful achievement for (The nursery and team) and we look forward to hearing your comments and feedback.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to talk to my self or your child’s key person.
Kind Regards