Children have been happily settling into their brand-new nursery - the first ever in Glasgow to be built in a park.
Winter Gardens Nursery, located inside Tollcross Park, is the new home for the former Parkhead Community Nursery.
The £4.7m project was designed by Glasgow City Council’s in-house design team and built by City Building.
Staff, including head of nursery Nikki Black, welcomed parents and their little ones for the first time on September 23.
The Glasgow Times was invited along last week, along with councillor Christina Cannon, to have an exclusive look at the new facility, which aims to reduce carbon emissions through the use of low and zero-carbon generating technologies.
Nikki, who had been head at Parkhead Community Nursery for 14 years, said: “The children have settled in so well, they’ve taken to their new nursery brilliantly.
“We all love the building. The space is fabulous as well as the sustainability of the building. Our doors lead right onto the park. The children have the freedom to be indoors or outdoors.
“We’ve got outdoor toilet facilities - they don’t need to come back in to access the toilet, and we’ve got boot rooms for the children to get changed in and out of their wetsuits and wellies, which just makes a huge difference.
“We’ve already been using the park quite a lot. We take our packed lunches and stay out for the day. Their favourite tree is the ‘spider tree’. We’ve got the farm park as well which we’ll use.”
All four playrooms within the nursery have direct access to an outdoor play space which allows the children to move independently between the indoor and outdoor environment.
Outside, there are covered play areas which allow the children to take part in outdoor activities in all weathers.
The project is part of the council’s early years investment programme to deliver the Scottish Government’s commitment of 1140 hours of flexible early learning and childcare.
‘Generation 5’ new build programme is the development of four new early years facilities in locations across the city where additional demand has been identified.
The other three locations are Broomhill, Govanhill, and Carntyne (within Hogarth Park).
In Govanhill, the new Victoria Road Nursery, which has been built on the grounds of Cuthbertson Primary School, has also recently opened.
The ‘Generation 5’ building model has been developed based on previous new build facilities delivered by the council and provides a building which addresses the key drivers of quality, nurture, outdoor education, community and flexibility.
A key driver has also been the need to deliver low-carbon buildings working towards the council's target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.
Councillor Christina Cannon, convener for education, communities and equalities, said: “It was great to see how the children and staff are settling into Winter Gardens Nursery.
"It is our first nursery in a park, and I think that has lots of opportunities with the outdoor space.
“Children are getting to know their own community their nursery is in and getting to have that connection with it too.”
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