Nursery World - Nursery Equipment: Woodwork

How can settings provide woodwork in a developmentally beneficial and safe way? Pete Moorhouse offers some tips

Once almost eradicated due to fears of litigation and overzealous health and safety concerns, woodwork is now making a comeback as part of a more balanced attitude to risk.

This is good news for children, as they really enjoy it. They learn about managing risk and making decisions for themselves. Woodwork is exceptional for developing children’s creative and critical thinking skills as they tinker and experiment with the possibilities of wood and tools, and then go on to express ideas.

As well as learning about how to manage physical risks in terms of safety, children develop their emotional attitude to risk. For many children, woodwork will be a totally new experience. Being unfamiliar and outside their comfort zone, it can feel a risk just taking part.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included