Tops Portsmouth have officially opened a brand new cabin for their pre-school children, alongside the Lord Mayor, Mayoress and Deputy Medical Director of QA Hospital, Mark Roland. The ceremony took place to officially open the new ‘Pre-school 3’ cabin, which has was built by Eco Classrooms and Nurseries, a company renowned for its eco-friendly projects. The Eco Classrooms and Nurseries approach is to encourage environmental citizenship, outdoor learning and educational play, helping connect the children with nature with their “biophilic design principles”; maximising natural light and providing views of nature and easy access to the outdoors, an approach we felt matched the Tops ethos and purpose. The cabin will create an additional 16 places for 3-4 year olds. Kasia Stunt, Nursery Manager of Tops Portsmouth said “Many beautiful resources have been bought to enrich the learning activities, which also reflects the environments in the nursery itself. Altogether, in this calm and natural environment, our professional early years educators will make the most of the crucial early years for learning and enabling the children to become enthusiastic, confident learners and respectful, responsible and resilient citizens.” The Tops Day Nurseries family have been recognised across the world for its controversial stance for becoming an eco-sustainable family of day nurseries, namely for banning glitter in 2018. The opening ceremony posed a brilliant opportunity for the local community to visit the nursery and learn more about how Tops are leading the way in eco-sustainable childcare. Visitors were able to acquire knowledge on the Real Nappy Campaign supported by Tops Day Nurseries, as well as bamboo toothbrushes, banishing one use plastic, making DIY wet wipes, why glass milk bottles are used instead of plastic and how the nursery is working towards a plastic free status with Surfers Against Sewage. This was in addition to gaining insight on the reputable family of 30 day nurseries, learning about the neutral colour schemes, natural resources, extra-curricular activities and much more. Cheryl Hadland, Managing Director of Tops Day Nurseries commented “Tops Portsmouth has always been one of our busiest nurseries with a long waiting list, so I am delighted that we are now able to offer an additional 16 places for 3 and 4 year olds. I believe it will support our early years educators with our purpose of working with parents to teach their children to be the best they can be, to respect and care for their world, and to enjoy the whole experience. It was wonderful to see a representative from the hospital itself attend, Deputy Medical Director Mark Roland, as well as the Lord Mayor and Mayoress to support and join us to cut the ribbon. We are open for new children and staff, all of whom can attend and work flexible hours to suit their families, subject to capacity of course. Come and have a look for yourselves, we have an open door policy!” Tops Portsmouth is open from 6am-8pm and offers flexibly bookings to the nearest 15 minutes.
