Nursery World - Learning & Development Science: Grand designs

Co-operative Childcare has introduced science gardens - through a
creative process involving all 50 of its settings. Meredith Jones
Russell reports.

The Co-operative Childcare group introduced science gardens to its nurseries with a competition asking each of its 50 settings to design and create their own outdoor learning zones.

The competition was inspired by the location of the group's annual managers' conference, which took place at Birmingham science museum Thinktank. The museum's own science garden was launched in 2012 and was the first project of its type in the country.

Divisional manager at Co-operative Childcare Sarah Rotundo-Fergusson says the Thinktank garden provided the group with the perfect springboard for the project. 'We run a lot of these kinds of projects and competitions across the group, and the response has always been phenomenal. We found the garden at Thinktank very inspirational, and we were keen to make the staff and children part of developing their own gardens.'

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