That Time We Went Back To Pre-School…

A Morning At Inspire Nursery

There’s nothing like getting to know a nursery than spending a bit of time there, so we decided to go hang out at Inspire Nursery to really understand what makes this place so great.

For starters? The location. Conveniently set just off Umm Al Sheif Street, this is a pretty easy place to get to wherever you’re coming from. And that’s not all: behind the gates, lies a beautiful big old villa that’s been lovingly converted into a learning space with the best interests of its petit pupils AND their parents at heart. We’re talking a gorgeous green garden including a planting patch where the kids can get stuck into growing and tending, a fab playground and plenty of shaded areas for when the sun is high.

And inside? The warm, welcoming entrance is lined with artwork by one of the parents who just happens to be an artist, too. It’s all about embracing individual talents here and involving every member of the family (parents are invited to take part in loads of fun stuff and are kept informed of everything their little people have been up to). Perfect.

The thing that really impressed us is that inclusion is a huge part of the Inspire philosophy. There are kids here with learning difficulties and challenges who aren’t treated any differently to anyone else but who are encouraged and loved and taught alongside their friends. The nursery manager is an arts therapist, so there’s a huge emphasis on the arts and on creativity, be it through traditional means or via alternative mediums including puppetry, story telling and role-play plus heaps more. When the school takes on a whole theme, they do it in creative style and get fully stuck in, from the teenies in the baby area to the older kids, that theme (be it dinosaurs, family, nature or whatever inspiring subject the teachers have chosen), the kids will get to understand it from so many angles. Take Mother’s Day for example, which happened to coincide with dinosaur week at Inspire: those T-Rex’s and pterodactyls and all the rest of them were celebrated for having babies and being mamas too!

We can tell you about the amazing curriculum, about the lessons in French and English, about the fact that all of the staff at Inspire are qualified teachers with unique talents to bring to their pupils, but really what we want to share is how much we saw Inspire as an extension of a family home. Children are encouraged to help with everything from cooking to cleaning up. And at nap time? They all make their own beds. This is exactly what early learning should be.

With gorgeous facilities, including a huge basement for yoga and soft-play to a mini art gallery displaying all of the kiddo’s fantastic creations, plus an on-site Occupational Therapist and access to loads of after-school activities including swimming, gymnastics and more, when you hear the term ‘well-rounded’ education, this is it. Feel inspired? We definitely did. Oh, to be able to skive off adulthood and really go back to pre-school for a few days…

Inspire Nursery offers a free mums and tots session on the first Saturday of each month from 9am-10:30am. Anyone is welcome to enjoy arts, crafts and some bonding time with their kiddos. See you there!

www.inspireallchildren.com
www.facebook.com/inspirechildrensnursery