Must Haves For Reception Refurbishment?

[Guest]

My school was flooded at the end of June and our nursery and reception classrooms were completely destroyed by 18 inches of muddy water. While I don't recommend this as a way of getting a refit (it was a pretty devastating sight!) things are now looking up and I have a completely blank canvas to start to rebuild! The challenge now is to get the classroom up and running again for 4 Sept, and it still has to dry out, be replastered and a new floor put in. I have too many ideas, a big must-have list and an even bigger would-like list. Community playthings are drafting some ideas, but I was wondering if readers had any must-haves they'd like to pass on? What's been your most brilliant purchase, or best idea for provision layout? Has anyone been through, or is going through (given the summer we're having) a similar experience? I'm looking for communication-friendly, getting boys talking and writing, easily accessible resources, curved pathways and lots of open-ended flexible furniture! That's just for starters!

[Guest]

We had a flood two winters ago when the weather was really cold (about -18 I think it was!!) and a pipe burst.

 

It brought the roof in but luckily a decorator was due in and so we think that the pipe had burst fairly near the time he came in otherwise it would have been leaking for another week!

 

We lost alot of boards on the walls and all of our home corner role play area.

 

It wasn't obviously as devastating as the situation you find yourselves in but it was a mess and the carpet was ruined

 

We also only had a few things to replace , but it did make us think about wall coverage!

We had never stuck to the boards because of how high they had been put up originally and when we replaced them we got more boards put up covering from floor to ceiling in certain areas for us to work from and not ruin the walls!

 

That has been good for us!

 

Perhaps you should think about what was really working well prior to the flood and start there?

 

Good luck. Enjoy the spend!!!

[Susan]

I worked in a school many years ago where the display boards were covered in hessian. We mounted work and put it on to the hessian backing and everything always looked lovely--no messing with background colours and those huge pieces of paper that never quite lay straight or flat!

More recently, Ive been to a nursery where the boards were small and every child had their own! Children chose the picture they wanted to display and when to change it although I daresay there was some staff interaction re the latter.

Not sure if any of that helps at all but have fun choosing and make sure you get some holiday!!!

[Susan]

Nice carpet to sit on that and that doesnt ruin the toes of adult shoes!

[SLIMBRIDGE]

Oh, I really feel for you! We had a flood too last winter, and it was only 5 months after the classroom had been redecorated... But it is a good chance to reorganise. In my case, the previous teacher had left loads and loads of out of date resources, and I was finding it hard to get rid of them without upsetting the lovely TA! So it was a great chance to start from scratch and made me be really ruthless about what we did and didn't want. We were able to make a really lovely, inviting book corner, with little sofa and a nicer bookcase (books facing out so children can actually see them!!). We also set up a Creative area with lots of baskets full of open ended resources. Good luck and have fun!

[Guest]

Have you seen the furniture on the early excellence site. I'm investing in some of their open shelving units for our room. Really nice role play and creative storage.

 

Hope you get sorted out.

 

Becs