WAPS visits Bridge Lane Nursery

Hot on the heels of her visit to Sunnyhill Primary, our Teresa has been out and about again, this time visiting the amazing Bridge Lane Nursery. Here’s her account of the visit.

The Nursery is in a residential street and is very short on space. There are 2 floors - babies and toddlers on the ground and olders upstairs. They do have a small outdoor space, half of it under cover with a fort- like climbing frame. The poster that greets you when you enter is Kathy's daughter, made from a collage of W&P materials. Every surface was covered with interest, there was not a blank wall (or ceiling) anywhere and the input from W&P was highly evident with imaginative use of the materials collected from us.

There are amazing fabrics collected from us; large cushions are essential and have a very short life so are constantly having to be replaced. A soft landing from the play equipment for the baby room is vital.

There’s a basket full of different sized bags with assorted fillings – I even felt some widgets in these - the toddlers have fun sorting the different bags by feel.......and a variation on the wall with our zips included to play with. I saw a tent/house made from some of our black velvet cut into strips and lined with colour. The kids love running in and out and pulling chairs and cushions inside. They have even found the odd nursery assistant having a quick 5mins rest!

There’s some of our foam board cut into extra large "luggage labels" and hung from the ceiling. Our widgets make a safe game for toddlers to explore unscrewing and screwing on the lids.

Remember the fantastic castle made by BAC? It’s found a new home installed in the stairwell and looks great.

The round weatherproof pictures on the wall are painted tin lids. I love the sunflower on its rainwater pipe stalk. The whole visit was most impressive and I felt tired at the energy, thought and complete commitment that must go into forever thinking up new ideas.

They also make very good coffee and their snacks are to die for. I asked the kitchen lady to come home with me but she said she would miss the children. That it folks, see ya, Teresa xx Thank you so much to Bridge Lane for allowing us to have a look around. It’s so encouraging to see the amazing use our supplies are put to!