In May 2019, ten years after the setting first opened, fire broke out at Honey Pot Garston Nursery in Liverpool. Less than two years later, the setting overcame adversity to be crowned Nursery of the Year at the Nursery World Awards 2020.
The fire, which was started deliberately by six teenagers, took hold almost instantly, destroying everything inside and causing the whole roof to collapse.
‘It spread really quickly, right in front of my eyes,’ says nursery director Jenna Geggie. ‘One minute the baby room was on fire, half an hour later the entire nursery had gone up. It took hours to put it out, by which point there was nothing really left of the nursery, it was essentially just the four walls.’
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
That night, staff sent out an EyLog message to parents to tell them what had happened. They maintained daily communication and called a meeting four days after the fire, explaining any notice periods and nursery fees would be waived for anyone who wished to source alternative childcare.
‘When it first happened we thought we might lose the children and ultimately lose the business,’ Ms Geggie remembers. ‘I was so worried about where they would go and about breaking up their friendship groups, but we actually managed to keep everyone together really nicely.’
In the end, just four out of 126 children went elsewhere, and all staff stayed on.
‘Parents were so used to having this lovely nursery, but with that gone they wanted to stay around to keep their children with staff and friends,’ Ms Geggie explains. ‘They said they would wait as long as it took for the nursery to be rebuilt. That was a real testament to how much our service meant to them.’
Meanwhile, the local community rallied round to donate resources and, after national media coverage, donations came in from further afield too.
‘We were incredibly lucky in the support we got from the local community, staff and parents,’ says Ms Geggie. ‘People really rallied around us and helped us to continue providing childcare. The staff helped out hugely, giving up their own time to sort through donations of toys and resources which came in thick and fast, organise and transport them, and then to set up the temporary nursery.’
Despite the devastation caused by the fire, the nursery only closed for one day while staff arranged alternative premises for the children. By leasing a vacant local authority nursery and providing a daily minibus service for parents who didn’t drive or found the new location difficult to get to, the nursery was able to keep running until portable classrooms were prepared.
REBUILD UNDER WAY
Meanwhile, the setting's owners were looking to the future.
‘We went back and forth with the insurance company,’ says Ms Geggie. ‘It was a really difficult time, talking to loss adjustors and all sorts. It was very stressful for a few months while we waited to see what would happen.’
Eventually, the insurance paid out, and the rebuild got under way in September 2019. One of the nursery owners was responsible for project-managing and worked ten hours a day, six days a week to get the project finished.
The children moved into portable classrooms on the site of the original building and stayed there until the rebuild was complete. Fairy lights and natural, open-ended resources helped the temporary accommodation feel like home, and the setting achieved its Eco-School Green Flag award during this time.
The children watched with interest as the nursery was rebuilt, and took regular trips to the building site to meet with the builders and discuss the project.
‘The children were understandably really upset because they loved their nursery, but watching the process helped them to understand what had happened and see what was needed to rebuild,’ says Ms Geggie. ‘It also allowed them to get involved and have their say. We were really keen to get their ideas and they came up with some really great, inventive things.’
Children sketched their own plans of how they wanted their new nursery classrooms to look. They used a lot of construction materials in block play and incorporated many complex concepts such as measure, weight and balance.
One pre-school child wanted a bigger home corner and drew where she wanted it to be positioned and which resources she wanted, and area managers ensured it was created according to her plan.
COUNTDOWN TO THE FINISH
Staff spent time preparing children for the move and involving them in the ‘packing up’ process, while all families were kept fully informed of when the move would be. Children had a calendar to follow with a countdown for work to finish.
‘That really helped them transition,’ Ms Geggie explains. ‘The move was then very easy, and they adjusted brilliantly. It also helped that they have really strong key person bonds.’
The rebuild added an extra storey to the original building, providing more floor space for an office, staff facilities, laundry facilities and communal spaces for children, such as a library, a mark-making and malleable play area, an area for babies, a large sensory studio and a block play and heuristic play area.
Honey Pot has also been able to offer an extra 14 childcare places as a result of the rebuild.
OFSTED KNOCKS
Work was completed in January 2020, three months ahead of schedule. Just five days later, Ofsted came in to inspect the setting.
It was judged Outstanding in all areas and the inspector commented that there was something ‘truly magical’ about the nursery.
‘The inspector was really complimentary about the nursery, and said she could not believe children had only been back on site for a week, and that she could tell transitions had been seamless due to how settled and engaged they were,’ Ms Geggie says. ‘We were just overwhelmed, and it felt like an amazing end to months of incredible stress.
‘The inspector also said that Honey Pot is much more than just a building, it's a family. And she was right, we have an incredible staff team who really love their children.’
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Since moving to its new location, the nursery has opened an after-school provision and wraparound holiday club to help keep local children busy and engaged and prevent them from being drawn into engaging in antisocial behaviour, such as that which led to the fire.
Staff are also working with a local councillor to find ways to raise money to be invested back into the community, while children have focused on ‘people who help us’ and discussed antisocial behaviour too.
Moving on from the fire, the nursery has started work on a literacy project to weave reading into all areas of provision, improving its range of books and the subjects featured.
Its speedy recovery and impressive work in the aftermath of the fire were commended by the judges at the Nursery World Awards.
Ms Geggie says the recognition was hugely meaningful to everyone at the setting. ‘Winning the Nursery World Award was really the cherry on the cake after everything that has happened,’ she comments. ‘We were quite emotional. It does feel like the end of one Honey Pot chapter and the beginning of a new one.’
Nursery facts and figures
- It took one hour for the whole building to catch fire and two hours for the roof to collapse.
- It took five hours, three fire engines and one aerial platform ladder to put the flames out.
- It took 105 days for the insurance to be agreed upon.
- Children were in temporary accommodation for 120 days.
- It took 152 days to rebuild the nursery.
- It took more than 30 members of staff more than two days to sort through more than 1,000 donations received.
Nursery World Awards 2021
Closing date for entries to the 2021 awards is now 7 June at 5pm, so don't miss the chance to have your work recognised www.nurseryworldawards.com
