Nursery World - A warm welcome

The entrance to your setting is where young children separate from their parents and it has some important work to do. Martin Rimes offers advice on getting it right Does your reception area say, 'Here is a wonderful place for your child'? Or is a jumble of damp jackets and clutter in a cramped hallway conveying a different message? Often the importance of this meeting place of parent, carer and child is overlooked and thought of last - or not at all - when people are designing a centre.

Does your reception area say, 'Here is a wonderful place for your child'? Or is a jumble of damp jackets and clutter in a cramped hallway conveying a different message? Often the importance of this meeting place of parent, carer and child is overlooked and thought of last - or not at all - when people are designing a centre.

Apart from providing space for coming and going, reception acts as a bridge between the two worlds in a child's life. Architect Mark Dudek notes, 'A carefully considered design for an entrance will amplify its meaning as the threshold into another world, that of being apart from the parent'

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