Outdoor overhaul - progress!
I first worked with Oliver Thomas Nursery School and Children's Centre back in 2015, when they were part of the brilliant year-long 'Outdoors and Active' programme - a partnership between Newham Council and Early Education to explore ways of getting young children more active every day. The team at OT really embraced the programme and devised many new approaches, including interventions with parents and communicating the important of physically active risk taking.
A year after Outdoors and Active finished, I revisited the setting to discuss specific ideas for overhauling the large outdoor space; a year after that, the setting invited me to work with them on designs and I'm excited to say that the work is now underway. HOS Landscapes won the contract to carry out the changes, based on my masterplan - HOS Ben visited the nursery several times are totally 'got' what Nicola, the Headteacher, and I were trying to create for the children at Oliver Thomas. Ben had masses of really excellent ideas for materials and landscaping, based on the company's own projects and expertise, and so Nicola and I both felt the project would be in capable hands.
The lovely HOS Ryan is now managing the project, and is very generously sending construction pics via WhatsApp. As many of my design projects are far away from home (Seoul being the furthest!) I don't always get to follow the construction process so I'm hugely grateful to HOS Ryan for sharing nicely :-)
All images are © HOS Landscapes
