Bright Horizons Chelmsford Day Nursery and Preschool have recently received a Green Flag Award recognising their commitment to environmental efforts.
The award is a result of the ongoing involvement of the nursery in the Eco-Schools Programme. This initiative is designed with seven steps that nurseries and schools follow to help empower young people to make changes to protect the environment and understand the impact of climate change. Those involved in the programme can achieve the Green Flag Award as recognition and acknowledgement of the ecological achievements made by young people.
Donna, Deputy Manager at Bright Horizons said: “The children have been so enthusiastic with learning about the environment and all the ways to protect our planet. Earning this award is such a great achievement for our nursery as we have been encouraging the importance of learning outdoors through our Bright Beginnings Curriculum, which focuses on each child’s wellbeing. We want to keep inspiring the children to get involved with the eco-cause and exploring the different ways we can protect our planet.”
The nursery has been working hard to achieve the Eco-Schools Green Flag status. They chose three topics that they wanted to focus on, which were Bio-Diversity, School Grounds and Transport. The children then worked on activities based around them, this included creating a wormery in the preschool garden, planting their own vegetables, fruit and plants in their garden area and working with parents to encourage and teach children about the benefits of walking, scooting, or cycling to nursery.
The nursery was commended by the Eco-Schools Programme for enforcing learning about the environment within their Bright Beginnings Curriculum, which incorporates teaching children about understanding and respecting others. The Eco-School Programme referred to the nursery’s curriculum as ‘wonderfully practical and nature-oriented and provides a clear purpose’.
Bright Horizons currently has 59 nurseries across England and Scotland that have joined the Eco-Schools programme. Providing children with the best start in life is at the core of everything the team at Bright Horizons do. For more details on our passion for sustainability within our nurseries please visit here.