Essex nursery ditches plastic toys for natural 'learning opportunities'

With more than eight million tons of plastic entering the planet’s oceans each year according to Plastic Oceans UK, an Ilford nursery manager has spent the summer holidays transforming the nursery into one that is plastic-free.

Jungle Monkeys Nursery, Newbury Park, hosted a toy donation last week for families to come along and take away the nursery’s plastic toys and storage it no longer needs and wants to encourage both children and parents to recycle and reuse.

Jungle Monkeys new manager, Heleanna Phair wanted the nursery’s toys to go to local parents and believes parents should not be pressured to buy new toys for their children. She told daynurseries.co.uk: “There is so much waste in this area and a lot of the parents can’t always afford things. Children learn just as much when parents buy toys from charity shops, car boot sales and use natural items that are at home.

"What is really surprising is that the children are not missing any of the plastic toys. The children are so much happier. I think it is easy to put plastic toys in front of children and not really engage with the learning opportunities.”

'Now the resources are more natural, the children are more inquisitive and love to spark up more conversations with the staff'

Over the summer term, the nursery eco-warrior made a host of environmentally-friendly changes. Among the new features are an exploration table, bio-degradable glitter, recycling bins, glass milk bottles, regular trips to a local forest school and an edible garden to grow fruit and vegetables for the children. The exploration table for her two-year-old students includes simple items such as paper clips, glue, elastic bands, pegs, corks, seashells, coloured materials, scrap fabric, bendy rubber, stones and large rocks from the beach and magnets.

Ms Phair said: “We were surprised how much the two-year-olds wanted to go and play with it. We thought they were going to tip it out and walk off, but they haven’t. They have sat there making things, so we are going to make something like that for the other room now.

"Now the resources are more natural, the children are more inquisitive and love to spark up more conversations with the staff, therefore the learning has increased and the children have just so eager to become involved and explore all of the loose parts that are there and want to find out a lot more about it.”

Parents are really impressed with the new look nursery and have made comments about how lovely and light the rooms look. Ms Phair said: “I have been decluttering the rooms and revamping them through the whole six weeks of the holiday. They look a lot more inviting. Before there was so much colour and plastic toys that it didn’t look inviting to play; it just looked a bit chaotic.”

Jungle Monkeys Nursery has made other changes such as banning glitter. “We do not use glitter anymore and if we do, we only use a bio-degradable one. We always use plastics from home to do our junk modelling, so we are recycling as much as possible.

"We have just purchased new recycling bins for the children so they can become more independent and recognise what is waste and what can be reused.”

The nursery is even swapping plastic milk bottles for glass ones. Ms Phair said: “We have also gone onto glass milk bottles. It’s a bit of a pain washing them out but it’s nice to know we are cutting down on the plastic waste.”

'Living in London can be quite difficult for young children'

The Jungle Monkeys manager is an ambassador of her green nursery. “We had a group of childminders for our stay and play messy events and people who work in other nurseries. They have been really impressed by some of our natural resources and are going down the same route so it’s nice to know that everyone is on board with it.”

Ms Phair believes it is important for children to have access to outdoor play in all weathers. “I just want them to learn in the natural environment. Living in London can be quite difficult for young children.

“We are very lucky that we have a very big building, so we have a garden for the pre-schoolers, and we are now developing a space to the side of the building where the toddlers' room is positioned so they can access outside as well.

“Where historical managers had Astroturf and kept the gardens clean, we are going to deliberately keep this garden natural and messy so they can get muddy, and we will have a tap out there so they can transport water into the sandpit and into the mud areas. To support this, we are also going to start forest school at a local park.”

Time has also been incorporated for the children to grow their own food. “In my last nursery, the children were actually eating the food they had grown. That was really successful.”

Jungle Monkeys Nursery is planning to grow pumpkins for Halloween this year. “We want the toddlers and the pre-schoolers to make it part of their weekly timetable. They are going to have a half-day a week. We are very lucky that we have the space to do this, to be honest,” added Ms Phair.