Our Gardens

At The Ark we firmly believe that plenty of fresh air and outdoor activity has huge benefits for the health and happiness of our children. We have over half an acre of secure outdoor space where children enjoy both free play and structured activities.

We’re passionate about the importance of the outdoors and our large gardens are just one of things that make us unique. With almost an acre of land bordered by natural landscaping in a semi-rural setting, we have an abundance of green space for children to enjoy.

With so much space we can offer a wide range of outdoor activities; football or perhaps basketball for the more energetic, a sensory garden for curious toddlers or our very own vegetable and plant patch for budding gardeners!

Sensory Garden & Vegetable Patches

At the nursery we have a Sensory Garden and Vegetable patches, so children can continue their learning outdoors.

A trip through our sensory garden will set children on a journey through five planting areas focusing on Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch and Smell. This space offers a great interactive educational experience as well as a quiet shaded space for children to experience the delights of nature – we’ll be adding lots of features to try and encourage birds and insects to join us in the garden!

Our vegetable patches, have been designed specifically to ensure our children can get involved in planting and nurturing vegetables for our kitchen, mum and dad might also get to try some too!

Open spaces

The nursery and afterschools have their own secure separate gardens with lots of open spaces.

We have an outdoor classroom which provides shelter and shade, and when the weather permits we will always endeavour to move our activities outside.

All age ranges can avail of our outdoor space throughout the year and all ground floor rooms have their own access to the gardens.

Babies can play in their own soft floor area, or make use of the shaded areas – the perfect safe places for little ones to explore.

The Zone has it’s own large, secure garden with something to suit everyone, open spaces, natural areas and a climbing frame.

We have a wide range of outdoor equipment to suit all ages, such as tricycles, scooters, balls, hoola hoops, parachutes and so on.
We want children to take risks and challenge boundaries and abilities and we feel that our outdoor areas provide the perfect opportunity for risk taking in a controlled environment.