Nursery World - Our working relationship: Creating a fantastic outdoors together

Beatle Woods is an outdoor, term-time nursery in Coventry, West Midlands that caters for children from the age of two. Set in a ten-acre site of natural woodland, it also provides care for children being either home or flexi-home educated, and has also recently extended its hours to offer wraparound care. Rachel MacBeth first met Beatle Woods’ deputy manager, Claire Sargeant, when they both worked at the same pack-away pre-school.

Rachel MacBeth, co-founder and manager of Beatle Woods, and Claire Sargeant, Beatle Woods’ deputy manager and SENCO

Rachel MacBeth: 'I used to be really bad at delegating, but I'm better at that now'

What does your role involve?

‘I’ve been manager of Beatle Woods for six years now and love it. The whole outdoor nursery idea came about by accident after I lost my dad in 2016. At the time, I was the manager of a pack-away nursery, and I really enjoyed working there, but it just seemed like the right time to do something different. I just happened to drive by this piece of land and thought it could make a great learning environment. I really wanted to get children outside to experience the natural world and explore through unstructured play, to support my vision of what an early years environment should look like – uninterrupted and unrushed.

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