It’s Island Time in the baby room at Brookhill Nursery School in Barnet, north London. Seven infants aged 12 to 14 months old are clambering into the centre of a circular mound of cushions with a blanket placed on top. ‘We created this safe space, which we call our “island of intimacy”, for babies to connect with educators during transition times,’ explains family support and outreach officer Sandie Jeetoo. ‘They love crawling into it and playing with the treasure baskets while having high-quality interactions with the practitioners.’
Brookhill Nursery School and Children’s Centre opened its nine-place baby room in 2019 after several members of staff became pregnant at the same time. ‘We wanted to retain our staff, while also offering parents a truly nurturing environment,’ says Kelly Brooker, executive head teacher of Barnet Early Years Alliance (BEYA), a federation of three Outstanding nursery schools: Brookhill, Hampden Way and St Margaret’s.
Situated in a renovated part of the building, the baby room offers a comfortable space to play, a separate sleep area and a garden. There is a carpeted cosy area with a sofa, soft furnishings and fairy lights; an interactive reading corner with voiles attached to the ceiling; and plenty of floor space for physical play, messy play, treasure baskets and heuristic play.
Assistant head teacher Maia Hasan believes that every baby room should have a sofa. ‘It’s such an underestimated piece of equipment. Just seeing a child nestled into the sofa with a practitioner, reading a book, is so comforting and reassuring,’ she says.
MOVEMENT AND THE SENSES
When designing a baby room, Jeetoo says the key areas to focus on are movement and sensory.
‘Every piece of equipment, down to the different surfaces on our floors, are there for a purpose. We have a carpet, rugs and the hard floor. Walking or crawling on these surfaces builds their muscles – and their confidence. They learn how to navigate their whole body in space when stepping out over the little step into the garden,’ she explains.
The resources have also been chosen specifically for the cohort of children: aged six months up to two years. Heuristic play features heavily and baskets and canvas bags containing collections of items that are shiny, wooden, noisy, kitchen and black and white are rotated throughout the week. Treasure-basket and heuristic play is part of the morning routine, and it ensures a ‘smooth separation from parents and transition before breakfast’, Brooker says. The children also have two hours of uninterrupted play each day, an hour in the morning and afternoon, when they can immerse themselves fully in the free flow.
‘The benefits are immeasurable,’ says Jeetoo. ‘There’s repetition, problem-solving, mathematical concepts and lots of language around the objects that they are playing with. It’s also great for schemas, as they love putting things into boxes and bags and transporting them around.’
‘The key aim is to ensure that the spaces provide challenge and promote learning,’ adds Brooker.
In the reading corner, there is a low-level interactive display of the Five Little Ducks book, along with rubber ducks; photos of babies interacting with them and print-outs of the pages and numerals. Early years educator Chelsea Gillham-Ward says, ‘It’s at their eye level so they can clearly see them and reach up and play with them. It supports communication, language and literacy.’
On the wall next to it sit three colour-changing sequin fabric Mermaid Sensory Motor Skills Frames from TTS, which infants can run their fingers along for a calm, soothing experience.
A set of TTS Rose Gold Metallic Mini Blocks are displayed on a low-level self-selection storage unit. ‘Babies enjoy handling them, building and positioning them and exploring the size and shape, which are all early mathematical concepts,’ says Jeetoo.
GETTING PHYSICAL
A Community Playthings Up and Over compact baby gym is in the middle of the room. Gillham-Ward says, ‘It helps them build up their confidence to take their first steps. After a few attempts, they are soon crawling up the steps, holding onto the sides and mastering the steps. They love to slide down the slipway.’
She has stapled zips onto one of the panels. ‘They build up their fine and gross motor skills as they lift up their bodies to pull the zips together.’
Early years educator Virna Egerton says it is great to see how quickly babies reach their milestones, such as walking. ‘Some are here for ten hours a day. Part of our pedagogical approach is professional love,’ she explains.
Having enough floor space is key, Jeetoo says. ‘We don’t want to overload an area with so much equipment that children can’t move. Our free-flow space gives babies the room to move, inside and out.’
A couple of babies are exploring the messy-play tuff spot, which is filled with jelly, petals and flowers. Gillham-Ward says, ‘They love squishing it, sinking their hands in it and even sitting in the tray. They learn words like “sticky”, “cold”, “soft”, “warm” and “splash”.’
IMMERSIVE ART
A two-year-old is mark-making and paint-mixing with a scaled-down garden broom on a large sheet of paper that runs down the side of the room. He is immersing himself in the full-body experience, brushing the paint with one hand after he tips it onto the paper and quietly watches it trail along. Alongside him, 18-month-old Timothy is enjoying mixing the paints together, using his hands and a washing-up brush.
Early years educator Remy Bukenya says, ‘The whole-body immersive art experience is great for their physical development because they stand, sit, crouch down and build up their core muscles as they engage in the creative play.’
The home corner is decked out with a Community Playthings Toddler Collection kitchen set; stainless steel pots and pans; a wooden toaster and telephone; a toy dog with a food bowl; and a table with crates of soft toy vegetables. There are laminated photos of family members attached to the surfaces.
‘Children from age 13 months enjoy the kitchen,’ says Bukenya. ‘They love to make cups of tea, look after the babies in their cots and role-play with dressing-up clothes. They also enjoy picking up the photos of their family and taking them on a tour around the setting.’
Each child has a ‘heritage bag’, which is a miniature tote bag filled with cultural or personal items that are meaningful to them. These contain flags of their countries, handkerchiefs, photos of their grandparents, or objects such as their first rattle. Children are encouraged to take their bags off the hooks and show their special items to their friends.
OUTDOORS
The outdoor area is compact but full of opportunities for rich, physical and sensory play. There is a large, raised runway along the side of the garden, made partly of wooden decking and partly artificial turf. Children love to clamber up the ramp and crawl or walk along it.
A simple mud kitchen from TP Toys with a sink, tap and utensils is attached to the wall. A bucket of soil and petals for potion-making and Cosy’s Tiny Tyres are placed around the area with wooden offcuts on top to make them into kitchen stations.
Dinosaurs are displayed on pieces of offcut bark. ‘Children love to transport them to the sand pit or the mud kitchen or the water tray,’ Hasan says.
BROOKHILL’S BEST BUYS:
Best investment: Up and Over compact baby gym, £1,552, from Community Playthings, https://bit.ly/4aRInKj
Best medium-priced resource: TP Toys Early Fun Mud Kitchen Playhouse Accessory, £33, from Amazon, https://amzn.to/4e8Ap2c
Best cheap buy: Heuristic play sacks: practitioners fill up the sacks with items from home.
Great for baby rooms: TicKIt’s Large Acrylic Mirror Panel Set, £234, from Cosy, https://bit.ly/3RfnnWC; Rose Gold Metallic Mini Blocks, £50.39, from TTS, https://bit.ly/3RjeWd1; Minifolk Set of 6 Stackable Toy Boats, £8.99, from Amazon, https://amzn.to/3X9urIa; Mermaid Sensory Motor Skills Frames, £15.99, from TTS, https://bit.ly/3VeDcyl; Cosy’s Tiny Tyres, £84.99 15pk, https://bit.ly/3x4LVLj; Toddler Collection, £1,168, from Community Playthings, https://bit.ly/3XcvC9U
FURTHER INFORMATION
- BEYA’s observation and assessment tool: https://bit.ly/4ep2Vg4
