August 2024

What was once an unused car park has been transformed into a welcoming garden with a hygge feel. Cozy corners, natural textures, and calming spaces encourage children to relax, explore, and connect with nature, making our outdoor area a place for play, curiosity, and wellbeing.

January 2026

children influence and affect change

February 2026

Children Thrive and Develop in Quality Spaces

Children experience high quality spaces

Quality environments play a vital role in supporting children’s learning, wellbeing, and development. By strengthening our community links with MKM Building Supplies here in Heathhall, we have been able to enhance our outdoor play space through the donation of resources to support safe and purposeful play. These improvements have increased children’s opportunities to engage in active play, develop confidence, and explore their environment in meaningful ways. This collaboration reflects our commitment to continuous improvement and creating environments where children feel safe, valued, and inspired to learn.

February 2026

Children are Supported to Achieve
Wellbeing, inclusion and equality

 Together Advancing Inclusive Practice 

As part of our ongoing commitment to inclusive practice and continuous improvement, we are embarking on the Together Advancing Inclusive Practice programme. This mentoring model builds on the strengths already present within our setting, valuing existing good practice while providing opportunities for deeper reflection and growth.

Through the guidance of experienced facilitators, we will be supported to reflect on the unique needs of our setting and the children and families we serve. The process encourages us to identify what is working well, alongside areas that can be further enhanced to ensure all learners are fully supported and included.

Over the course of approximately eight weeks, this collaborative journey will involve observations, professional dialogue, shared problem-solving, and reflective practice. Facilitators will offer practical advice, coaching, signposting, and role modelling, enabling us to strengthen our confidence, knowledge, and inclusive approaches in meaningful and sustainable ways.

ELKLAN 

Leadership

staff skills, knowledge, values and deployment

Children are supported to achieve

 Wellbeing, inclusion and equality

A member of our team is taking part in ELKLAN training to help us better support children’s communication and language development. This means we’ll be using more inclusive, communication-friendly approaches that benefit every child — whether they’re finding their words, building confidence, or already loving to chat.

By using these strategies in everyday play and routines, we can support children to understand, express themselves, and feel confident joining in. This helps all children build strong communication skills, positive relationships, and a real sense of belonging within our setting.

April 2026

My Nature Play 

We were chosen as one of 50 settings throughout the UK to receive staff training and a clothing library for our children and staff to ensure that children are able to participate in high quality nature play and learning outdoors. 

Jane our My Nature Play Leader joined us over six weeks to embed nature play within our setting. 

Firstly we have focussed on how well we provide opportunities for children to experience nature within our setting and within the local community. 

Together we have audited our outdoor provision to assess if there are opportunities for all children's schematic play behaviours to be supported. Overall, most area's were supported well however we found that there was limited opportunities for immersive orientation and rotation schemas. 

"I wanted to share that I witnessed a really wonderful bit of practice from Lauren, supporting a dysregulated child, earlier. She was so supportive, calm and reassuring, effortlessly redirecting the other children so that she could focus on the needs of the child who was struggling and then getting down to the child’s level, using a calm tone and really modelling a proportionate response to that child. She is such an asset to your team!" (5.6.26) 

April 2026

Bookbug 

Shauni has recently successfully completed Bookbug leader training and is implementing this programme within our setting to support our family learning programme. 

The children have been introduced to Bookbug and took them to the local library to enjoy a special story session together. 

Our Bookbug sessions begin on w/c 18th May where we will be welcoming families into Little Wonderland to enjoy a wonderful storytelling session together. 

Quality Improvement Visit

Dumfries and Galloway Council 

(14/5/26)

At Little Wonderland Nursery, we are committed to continuous improvement and ensuring the highest quality experiences for children and families.

As part of this commitment, we recently took part in a routine Quality Improvement Review with our colleagues from Dumfries and Galloway Council. The purpose of the review was to evaluate how we are currently performing and to identify our next steps for development.

The focus of this review was Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Through discussions, observations and self-evaluation, we explored our strengths, celebrated positive practice, and identified opportunities to further enhance children’s learning experiences.

The review process has helped us to reflect on our practice, set clear priorities for improvement, and continue to develop high-quality learning opportunities that support every child to achieve their full potential.

We look forward to implementing our improvement priorities and sharing our progress with our children, families and wider community.