As you may know, we’ve been working slowly but steadily towards moving to the woods and registering there as a fully outdoor nursery. As you may also know, that process is taking significantly longer than we had anticipated 😞

While we continue to wait for the appropriate permissions to be confirmed, we’ve decided to make progress in other directions.

As a result, we’ve submitted an application to the Care Inspectorate to register as a fully outdoor nursery operating from the Community Centre garden, reflecting the fact that we already spend almost all of our days learning and playing outside.

This won’t result in any significant changes for children and families — they will continue to benefit from our outdoor ethos as before — but it will bring some subtle changes to how we operate behind the scenes. We are looking at this positively as another stepping stone in our journey.

The Care Inspectorate estimate a minimum of 3 months for the registration process, so for now it’s very much business as usual.

Although this represents a detour from our original plan, we see it as an important and positive step forward — one that strengthens our outdoor approach and keeps us moving in the right direction.