Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Making Spaces... Partitions

Anne O'Connor suggests ways of maximising the opportunities a large space offers while retaining the sense of security some children need by partitioning off smaller areas.

Our nursery has just moved into a new building with a huge open space for children aged rising three and over. The bigger space has the advantage of letting the children move freely between the various areas of provision but discourages them from really exploring at length - I'm thinking of our newly created 'science' area and woodwork bench. How can these be partitioned to avoid distractions and allow the children to settle and engage in their explorations?

Space is always an issue in early years settings. Some of us don't have enough and yet having too much can be just as much of a problem. Young children can feel overwhelmed and unsettled in a large area and if it seems large to us, imagine how it must feel to a small person. What we need to aim for is to maximise the value of the large area and the opportunities it promotes while creating that sense of emotional containment and security that comes when we create smaller spaces within the large one.

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