Here is a (low flying) bird’s eye view of the location of our outdoor nursery in Gillies Hill Community Woodland. This area to the south west of the walled garden has vast potential for play and learning and we are excited to be starting to develop it in preparation for our move later this year.
We are pleased to say that Kay and Heather are back on site for us today updating the Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) they conducted for us last year. This documents the range of habitats present and looks for signs of any protected species and also suggests improvements that can be made to benefit wildlife in the environment. Last year’s report stated that “There was no field evidence of protected species found during the survey. There is suitable habitat for nesting birds and commuting and foraging for bats” and that no follow up surveys were recommended. Today Kay and Heather are updating their report to include a survey of the area to the other side of the walled garden where we plan to locate the shelter for our outdoor nursery.
We are pleased to report steady progress towards developing the next phase of our plans to move our nursery service to the woods. During this interim phase we plan to build a shed which will serve as a shelter and storage area and will support our children’s play and learning in the woodland.
This week we met with members of the Cambusbarron Community Development Trust board of trustees and agreed a rough position for our shelter. Have a look at this (very amateur) drone footage showing the identified location (adjacent to the Walled Garden). The taped area is very approximately the size of the proposed shelter (about 7mx5m).
Our architects are working on our planning application and we intend to submit this in the next few weeks.
We will be at the CCDT Open Day in the Community Centre on Saturday Jan 27th between 11am and 4pm if you want to talk to us or find out more about our plans.
Below are suggestions for what our shelter could look like.
At CVN we are passionate about the benefits of learning outdoors in the natural environment and we spend as much time as we can in our local woodland.
We are continuing to develop our plans to move our service to the woodland and have recently revised our original business plan to facilitate this move. The revised plan sets out a phased approach which will better help us achieve our long term goal.
As a first step we plan to extend our current service by increasing the number of days we spend in the woods. We are currently looking to source funding to allow us to build a shelter which will support children’s experiences particularly in the extremes of weather conditions. The shelter will provide basic heat (likely by means of a wood burning stove) and we hope to have access to power via solar panels. The shelter will allow us to extend play and learning and support children to have positive experiences particularly in colder, wetter weather conditions.
As we develop our service above we will be gaining significant knowledge and experience which will feed into the larger project which we will pursue in the background.
So, while our longer term aim remains to create a bespoke facility in the woodland, we will be able to enhance children’s play and learning opportunities in the meantime. The aims of the larger building include to facilitate immersive and sustained engagement in the woodland environment which in turn will promote the development of environmental awareness, social responsibility and community pride. These aims remain equally appropriate for this initial phase of the project.
Like the larger nursery building, the shelter will provide a secure base for children and support their play and learning opportunities in the outdoors albeit on a smaller and potentially more rustic scale. The shelter will also be a community asset available for use by community groups and organisations supporting their use of the woods too.
We are working with Inch Architecture and local suppliers to establish the design and location of the shelter which we intend will complement the larger project.
Find out more under the CVN in the Woods tab
Echoes Ecology have now completed their PEA of our proposed site in Gillies Hill Community Woodland. Their executive summary records “There was no field evidence of protected species found during the survey. There is suitable habitat for nesting birds and commuting and foraging for bats. If proposed works are to be undertaken during the breeding bird season (March to September inclusive), then any areas of the Site that need to be cleared of vegetation must be shown to be free of nesting birds prior to works commencing. There are no other recommended surveys.”
Echoes Ecology report lists several species from the Scottish Biodiversity List which may be present in the woodland – these include bats, toads, hedgehogs, red squirrels and native bluebells. We have seen lots of bluebells this spring, we regularly see toads and have once spotted a red squirrel. We need to keep our eyes peeled for the rest!
We were very pleased to welcome Kay and Heather from Echoes Ecology to our woods this morning. They have picked a beautiful, warm, sunny day to visit!
Kay and Heather are are conducting a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) of our site in the woods which will document the range of habitats present and will look for signs of any protected species. This initial appraisal will inform the requirement for any future surveys.
Kay is known to us at CVN having helped us put up squirrel and bird feeders in the woods a couple of years ago. We are hopeful that our children can again be involved so that we can learn more about the creatures that live in our woods.
Days in the woods are always good, warm days in the woods even better but not sure what can top a warm day in the woods AND finding tiny toads! 🐸🐸
Update – wrote that too soon! Even more better are warm days in the woods AND tiny toads AND marshmallows!!
Great to be at Cambusbarron Gala Day and see so many of our children having so much fun despite the rain. That said CVN children are very used to having great fun in all weathers! It was also lovely to get a chance to speak to children and parents who will be starting with us after the summer and also to meet prospective new families. We are so lucky to be part of such a vibrant community.
We’re developing our ideas for our new nursery building in Gillies Hill Community Woodland and wanting to get some ideas and suggestions from the wider community. We’d really like to hear from you about experiences, ideas and suggestions on how to make sure our building is ethically and sustainably built. Please take some time to give us your ideas via this google form.
We are thrilled and delighted to learn that the National Lottery Community Fund has awarded us £10000! This money will help fund the next stage of our project to develop our new nursery building in Gillies Hill Community Woodland.
If you haven’t heard about our plans or want to find our more, check out the pages on our website and/or follow our new dedicated Instagram @CVNintheWoods.
We always welcome comments and feedback so you can do that too via our feedback link. If you prefer a less technological method, give us a call on 01786 430497 or, better still, stop by and have a chat. We’re always delighted to discuss our plans. If you spot us when you’re up in the woods we can even show you some of the things we get up to!
You can support our project financially too, see “Support Us”.
Cambusbarron Village Nursery 