Wokingham Today

Wokingham nursery expands with new eco-friendly building

- By JOHN WAKEFIELD news@wokinghamp­aper.co.uk

A WOKINGHAM nursery says it is building on its success and creating 40 new places for children with the opening of a brand-new eco-friendly facility.

The new building at Merrydale Day Nursery & Pre-school, London Road, just off the A329 by Coppid Beech roundabout, opens this month and features a wide variety of different learning areas where a broad curriculum is offered.

It is attached to the main building to ensure children using it will still feel connected to the rest of the nursery community and features a bright and airy interior and a secure veranda for safe free-flow outdoors.

Nursery spokespers­on Jacqui Szrejder said: “We’re excited to be opening this wonderful new space for the older children at Merrydale; not only is it great for them, but it allows the other age groups to spread out more in the rest of the nursery, so all the children will benefit.”

The new facility was built by a firm which specialise­s in designing modular eco-buildings

for nurseries and schools.

It will be used by the pre-school age group, and has been freshly equipped with the best resources for enquiring young minds.

It has been designed to create spacious, enticing learning areas for children to prepare them for school.

Merrydale is part of the Complete Childcare group of 13 nurseries across Wokingham and the surroundin­g area.

Speaking about how the Covid-19

pandemic has affected the nurseries, Jacqui added:

“We adapted operations in all our nurseries to meet government guidelines in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

“We have been very appreciati­ve of the flexibilit­y of our staff and parents to how things have changed.

“When lockdown was announced earlier in the year, we kept five of our settings open to keyworker

families, accepting children from sister nurseries also.

“As restrictio­ns have eased, we have been able to open more settings over the summer period and are delighted to now have all of our 13 nurseries back open.”

Complete Childcare is fully registered with Ofsted and prides itself on its family-friendly features and inclusive fees, which include access to a wide range of activities, such as outdoor learning, phonics and numeracy.

The nursery is expanding at a time when nationally there are fears childcare places will be cut following the coronaviru­s lockdown.

 ??  ?? Children enjoying activities in the new facility at Merrydale Day Nursery and PreSchool
Children enjoying activities in the new facility at Merrydale Day Nursery and PreSchool
 ??  ?? Jacqui Szrejder
Jacqui Szrejder

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom