The council’s Education Convener and Vice-Convener opened the new nursery at Ferryhill Primary School this week.
This is part of a programme of eight new city nurseries which began in August 2015.
The state of the art new buildings have all been designed using research on the best environment for early years learning.
The surroundings allow for ‘a free flow access to the outdoors’ as well as indoor play. Research shows that children do well in environments with natural colours, and also by bringing outdoors inside. All of this has influenced the interior and exterior of the new nurseries.
Councillor Ian Perry, Convener for the Education, Children and Families Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council, officially opened the new nursery at Ferryhill Primary School.
He said: “The care and thought that has gone into the designs for our new nurseries is quite ground-breaking and so different from when I was a young child! The light, open design allows children the opportunity to express themselves and can only help stimulate them in such a fantastic learning environment.
“Investing in early years and delivering quality, affordable childcare is a priority for the Council which is shown by our £9m investment in new buildings in the past two years.”
Councillor Alison Dickie, Vice Convener for the Education, Children and Families Committee, and a former teacher at Ferryhill Primary School, said: “This is an exciting time in early years. Children, parents/carers and practitioners have been really positive about the new nurseries and thanks must to go to our dedicated staff for all their work in achieving such fantastic buildings.
“The designs are part of ensuring children are given the best start in life on their journey to becoming successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.”
Stewart Crabb, Head Teacher of the new nursery at Ferryhill Primary School, said: “Our children, families and staff are all delighted with our new nursery building which has built the natural world into it with real timber both inside and outside. Solid wood furniture has been used as much as possible to create a nurturing yet exciting play environment which promotes creativity, imagination, flexibility and the opportunity for children to move.
“We’re thrilled to be at the centre of trialling new flexible placements including the 1140 hours provision and to take forward the city’s provision for two-year-olds. This builds on our successful work last year with the innovative forest schools nursery nature kindergarten approach.”
In line with Scottish Government policy, the council is to almost double the number of hours of early learning and childcare which it offers by 2020. It will discuss the first steps towards providing this at a committee meeting next week.
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