LADYTON Early Education and Childcare Centre will be seeing some big changes to their facilities for 2017 after being awarded a £10,000 grant.

Following the Big Lottery Grant and consulting parents who use the centre, plans were put into motion to improve the outdoor area.

There will be a few large pieces of equipment installed, including a square shelter with benches that can be used as an outdoor learning space in all weathers; a humpback bridge to develop fine and gross motor skills; a minibeast exploration table to promote and develop STEM (science technology engineering and maths) based learning as well as Eco Learning through biodiversity experiences.

On speaking with parents, Karen McBride, head of centre at Ladyton EECC, said: “Although their children were moving on some of our children had younger siblings who may use the under-threes provision in the future.

“As we were a new nursery opening in August 2016 our new parent group was unknown to us at the time of making the bid.

"Staff members who were going to be transferring from the existing Ladyton three-to-five provision to the under-threes were also consulted on what they felt would be a priority for the area as we welcome the younger children into the facility.”

The project will cost £10,422.62 in total and so the nursery will meet the additional £422.62 from fundraising money.

Working with Scotplay, an outdoor and indoor play and sports equipment supplier, the nursery has been given a provisional start date of February 20.

All of the children will get use of the facilities on a daily basis and the nursery has expressed interest in working with members of the community to share the resource.

Ms McBride added: “We plan to liaise with our neighbouring schools to determine if they would be interested in using the resources with groups of their children.

"We will also be approaching the local mother and toddler group to see if they would be interested in timetabling some sessions using the new resources.

“As we have been lucky enough to obtain this funding we feel that it is important to share this with the local community. As there is currently a lack of outdoor play facilities we feel that this will be a valuable resource.

“We want to instil a healthy approach to the outdoors and physical activity from as young an age as possible.”