Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Mixed-age groups

Cowgate Under 5s has opened up its spaces so that children of
different age groups can move freely around the setting - with
significant benefits. The nursery's June Graham explains why it
works.

One of the first things you will notice when you enter Cowgate Under 5s Centre in Edinburgh is ... children. Not stowed away in age-separated rooms, but free to move around and choose where they want to spend their time. Our free-range children range from crawling babies right through to the ready-to-fly-the-nest five-year-olds. We live as a family unit with fluid movement for us all. Working and playing together.

When the nursery opened in 2002, there were three distinct playrooms that split the children into age groups. La Camera dei Bambini housed our youngest children aged up to two years old. Next door, La Salle de Jeux was populated exclusively by two-year-olds, while the last of the rooms - Sala Infantil - was home to our oldest children from three to five.

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