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Our Thrive Nature Kindergartens provide an enriched outdoor learning environment where your child can develop their interests whilst being fully immersed in nature
Home / Nurseries / Kirkintilloch Nature Kindergarten
Kirkintilloch Nature Kindergarten is a well-established and trusted nursery within the Kirkintilloch community. We are proud to have a reputation for providing high quality childcare.
We are committed to creating a home away from home atmosphere for children and parents to feel comfortable and confident. We provide childcare for children from 6 weeks to 5 years old, 5 days a week. Our nursery is situated in Whitegates Estate with convenient links to public transport. Our nursery also benefits from being close to the motorway network, allowing for easy access to Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow and beyond. We have our own large car park providing easy drop-off and collection.
Emergency services discount
Long-standing staff team
Award Winning
Large car park providing easy drop-off and collection
Talk or email to enquire about nursery, click book a viewing to book.
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Our Nursery Manager, Charmaine Ness, has a professional qualification in childcare and over 27 years of experience working with children of all ages. Our Deputy Manager Lynda has supported Charmaine at Kirkintilloch Nature Kindergarten for nine years and has been with Thrive for 20 years in total. She helps to ensure our nursery provides a safe and stimulating learning environment for children to develop and thrive.
We will guide you through every step to get the most out of our nurseries. Join our family across the UK. If you have any questions or enquiries please feel free to contact us on the following details provided below or alternatively you can complete our online enquiry form also located below and we will get back to you as soon as possible…
I cannot rate this nursery highly enough. The staff are extremely considerate, gentle and caring and helped my son through a long settling period with as little distress as possible. A year on, he is delighted to go to nursery and talks about the staff and other children fondly. Outside play is really important to us a family and we’re delighted that the children spend plenty of time in the garden in all weather! The management is so accommodating, friendly and helpful and I feel like everyone takes a genuine interest in all of the children who attend. Thanks to all of the staff!
Our extensive outdoor area is comprised of several very exciting spaces that promote children’s natural desire to explore, investigate and take risks under the supervision of skillful practitioners.
Inspirational features that add to the interest of the garden include; a tree house, a gravel pit, an allotment, a bug hotel, a pond, a fire pit, an outdoor classroom and a bird watching hut. We even encourage our children to help grow their own veggies in our vegetable patch whenever possible! The garden provides opportunities for children of all ages and abilities to physically challenge themselves. A small hill, steps, split level areas and stepping stones allow children to test their ability to climb, balance and jump at a level that they feel safe. We are now a forest school, so much of the Pre-School children’s play and learning takes place in our outdoor area. We provide our pre-school children with a secure and safe area to explore to their heart’s content. By providing access to such a wonderful nature area, we feel that we are offering our children the opportunity to engage with the rich natural diversity of the natural outdoor environment whilst helping to build confidence, sensitivity, resilience and curiosity.
We are committed to being an environmentally friendly nursery, making changes wherever we can in order to make the world a cleaner place! We are a registered ECO-Nursery and are committed to teach our children about their environment and the effect we have on it in our day to day lives.
Our curriculum includes a Realising the Ambition: Being Me framework in conjunction with Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence approach that offers hands-on perspectives to encourage the skills your child will need in the nursery and beyond:
We always offer flexible booking patterns and a range of funding options, including 3-5 years old government’s funded childcare. To find out more information on pricing and availability, please request a call back and we will be in touch shortly.
Our fees include:
*Terms and conditions apply to our funding options and discounts. Contact us for more information.
Our nurseries offer a wide range of nursery activities and extras to enrich every child’s experience at nursery and to support busy parents.
As part of our curriculum, we are committed to ensuring children are physically active for a minimum of 3 hours per day. Physical Development Champions at each nursery are passionate about physical development and create and design specific activities based around movement, raising the heartbeat and exercising the cardiovascular system.
Our nursery encourages children to celebrate festivals throughout the year. This is one of the best ways for children to learn about different religions and cultures by celebrating various world religious festivals, food tasting from different countries and dressing up in the national dress of their friends.
We provide children with opportunities to explore the use of real tools and natural materials under our supervision. Risky play encourages the development of excellent motor skills, communication, concentration and co-ordination and gives our children enormous scope to engage with their surroundings.
We believe that reading should be lots of fun, so we run a mini-library service to encourage children to share their favourite stories with their parents, and to help busy parents keep the bookshelf engaging at home! Our nurseries organise regular library visits as part of the learning process.
Thrive Childcare and Education understands the importance of promoting language and communication. Through our Every Child’s A Talker (ETAC) language programme, we seek to identify speech and language difficulties with an aim to providing detailed, age-appropriate language sessions in each of our nursery rooms. Babies and Toddlers have lots of fun at our Sing and Sign.
Forest School is an inspirational process that offers our children opportunities to develop their self-confidence through hands-on learning experiences in our woodland gardens and outdoor classrooms.
Our nurseries provide an extensive range of resources to encourage children to learn through play. We favour naturalistic learning resources and make fantastic use of our outdoor equipment, promoting free-flow and child-led learning.
Eco Schools is the largest sustainable schools programme in the world and is designed to encourage action on sustainable development issues. Our children love getting involved in their Eco Schools projects and learning about how to help protect the environment.
www.eco-schools.org.uk
Taking part in fundraising activities helps children to learn about others that are less fortunate than themselves and to understand how we can help them. Fundraising events are good fun and are a great way to bring children, families and communities together. Some of the fundraisers we have taken part in are: sponsored toddles, superhero days, baking cakes to sell and garden parties.
We celebrate the big move to primary school with a special graduation ceremony each year – caps, gowns, the works!
We encourage Heuristic Play with our 1–2-year-olds, embracing every child’s natural curiosity. Heuristic play involves offering children a range of different objects and receptacles with which they are encouraged to play freely without adult instruction.
We make use of our wonderful outdoor spaces and forest areas by encouraging children at our nurseries to plant, grow and tend to fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs throughout the year.
Our nurseries offer free settling-in sessions. Parents can bring their child for a couple of hours first, gradually introducing the child to a new environment. Settling-in sessions are aimed at helping your child to adapt to their new surroundings and become more familiar with the staff and other children.
Our E-Learning journals and Parent Zone app allow you to see your child’s activities at nursery with the click of a button. Staff upload images and notes about your child’s participation in activities at nursery for you to access wherever you are. Our nursery tablets offer exciting and stimulating learning experiences tailored to challenge and engage little ones.
Just another way we aim to make life run a little smoother for our families – many of our nurseries offer delivery acceptance. You can have deliveries/parcels/post sent to your nursery and collect anything when you come to the nursery for pick-up!
Daily Mile is physical activity and health and well-being in a social, outdoors context. It is not active play, physical education or outdoor learning, although participating in The Daily Mile can encourage curiosity and interest in outdoor environments in keeping with wider outdoor learning opportunities. The main goal is to increase daily activity.
Wherever we can we encourage children to partake in preparing their meals at nursery. We love to see children take pride in their culinary creations and enjoy healthy and delicious food.
Here at Nature Kindergarten Kirkintilloch, we have our very own qualified Nursery Chef who creates nutritionally balanced 3 week rolling menus. Our menus are designed to give your little one the very best start in life.
We make this possible by supplying our children with home cooked nutritional food, bursting with fresh fruit and vegetables and all the essential ingredients necessary for healthy physical and mental development. Whenever possible we source our food locally and organically, including seasonal vegetables and fruit into our menus. Our children have a choice of milk or water to drink throughout the day.
Our children have opportunities to excel as nursery gardeners with their very own vegetable patch!
Our children have opportunities to work with our Nursery Chef through weekly cooking and baking activities.
We are happy to cater for all preferences including Vegeterian and Vegan.
We offer a variety of milk including animal and plant based milks. Speak to our Nursery Chef regarding your preference.
We are happy to cater for a whole range of dietary/religious/cultural requirements. Please speak to our Nursery Chef for more information.
We do not add additional salt or sugar. Where possible we purchase products with reduced salt and lower sugar.
Our staff are trained in First Aid and our Nursery Chef is experienced in catering for allergies. You are more than welcome to meet with our Chef to discuss your requirements.
With a reputation for providing high-quality childcare since 1989, our nursery commits to creating a home away from home atmosphere for children and parents to feel comfortable and confident in our setting. This is reflected in our previous Ofsted inspections with both our nursery and Holiday Club rated as Outstanding.
We provide childcare for children from 0 to 5 years. With our lovingly restored and re-designed interior providing bright, airy spaces for play and learning as well as our fantastic outdoor space for all ages, we can offer families a secure and stimulating setting where children can thrive.
The Mere Nature Kindergarten has been a well-established and trusted nursery on one of the busiest commuter routes in Cheshire. It is perfectly located for parents living locally or travelling to or from Manchester via the A556 or to Warrington via the A50.
Musselburgh Nature Kindergarten is situated on the Esk Riverbank of Musselburgh. Our nursery is beautifully designed and finished to an exceptionally high standard creating a warm and homely atmosphere.
Our Nature Kindergarten is situated in the fabulous Media City UK development within Salford Quays, it is beautifully designed and finished to an exceptionally high standard. Our large forest garden provides plentiful opportunities to explore, and our Nature Kindergarten leaders are on hand to provide lots of wonderful outdoor adventures.
Dundee Nature Kindergarten is a well-established and trusted nursery situated in the middle in Dundee’s Technology Park. We provide childcare for children from birth to 5 years of age to learn, play and develop
Dunblane Nature Kindergarten is situated in the beautiful town of Dunblane beside Laighills Park. Our nursery is beautifully designed and finished to an exceptionally high standard, creating a warm and homely atmosphere.
Astley Nature Kindergarten is an all-inclusive education setting and Out of School Care Club situated just beyond Black Moor Village. We provide quality childcare for children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age, and also offer out-of-school care for children aged 4-11 years old.
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