Nursery has new indoor ‘yurty’ space
A new ‘yurty’ has been built on the Stramash Outdoor Nursery site with the help of volunteers and generous donations from parents and businesses.
The yurty is a combination of a traditional yurt and a marquee thanks to the domed top that lets in a tremendous amount of natural light.
The nursery now only needs to attach a solar panel and wind turbine, similar to those already in place for the office Portakabin, to get it properly up and running with LED lights.
The yurty replaces the previous ‘castle’ structure that burned down in January.
The nursery’s team leader, Cameron Sprague, wants the area to be a ‘home away from home’ for the children so they are all be comfortable and cosy when using it.
He said: ‘After the fire, we had an amazing community clean up day where more than 100 people came to help us. We have an incredible set of parents who really believe in what we’re doing and have stuck with us in the after-effects of the fire.
‘They were supportive of us being a bit nomadic and moving around a lot.
‘We had two parents who said they could build what they called a yurty and that took a little bit longer but we had a lot of input into the design of it.
‘I knew I wanted to make this porch area off it so the kids can get their wet gear off and go through to the yurty, which is basically a home away from home.
‘It’s not a traditional early years room. It feels like a home with couches and chairs and a family dining room table and a big fire. There was a real moment for me when I walked in and staff were playing a game with kids at the table and another reading with a child on her lap. That was exactly what it was set up for.’
The structure looks very humble from the outside but has a tremendous amount of space and the transitional porch has room for lots of children of different ages.
They hope to have lights and everything else finished by January and want to have a ceremony for everyone who helped create the space.
Mr Sprague thanked everyone who pitched in to help with their time to clean up following the fire, build the new structure and donated materials.
He continued: ‘We had a Justgiving campaign that helped to pay for materials, but also people pitching into help construct the yurty. BSW Timber donated so much, all I had to do was email them to ask and they sent it straight away.’
Many other businesses pulled together after the fire to raise money, donate facilities such as their Portakabin, and stone being dug up to build the Highland Soap Co factory will be used to build a road into the field.