I was always working, missing my family.

Before I started my Hygge training I had just left my job at a creche, the creche was in a shopping centre with lots of bright lights, no outdoor space or natural lighting, everything was brightly coloured and very over whelming, there was no structure to the day and the children would often get bored. I was restricted as to what I could do to change any of this due to company policies and approach. I felt deflated, unmotivated, and just did not enjoy my job, I was always working, missing my family. If I was at home, I was always on call to help when needed. 

I got a new job as Deputy Manager of a brand-new nursery that was being built at Warner Bro’s studios serving families in the TV and Film industry. It was quite different from anything I had ever done before; I had to do some research and re-find my passion for early years. During this time whilst doing my research I discovered Hygge and instantly it interested me, there are so many elements that just make sense to me, I absolutely love cosiness and warmth. My house is full of candles, fairy lights, blankets – my favourite thing to do is snuggle up with a hot chocolate on a rainy day with the fire on, so when I heard that I could incorporate this into my career I was thrilled

As well as helping with the set up of the nursery I am also deeply involved in writing the pedagogy. We offer a play-based curriculum with rich opportunities for learning, building, and extending the children’s learning from their interests, supporting children to be independent and confident learners. When I started at my new nursery (The WonderWorks) it was still a building site so I have had the luxury of being a part of creating something from scratch, great thought has been given to ensuring the nursery is calm, warm, and inviting. The colour scheme is set as colours of exposed plaster and earth red - to add a warmer, homely feel. A variety of home furniture has been used throughout, to ensure the space feels inviting and familiar, and to give the feeling of the nursery space being an extension of the child’s home; a space to learn and feel safe. Everything has been designed to focus on the children: what they can see, what they can touch, what they can explore, how it will make them feel, how it will encourage their learning.

As a management team we have made the decision to keep working from home to a bare minimum, when you are at home not working calls will only be made in cases of emergency. This allows us to have time to ourselves, to take a break from work and switch off. I have seen a drastic change in all aspects of my life due to this, every time my phone goes off I’m not feeling anxious because it could be work, my relationship with my family is stronger because I’m having more time to spend with them and less screen time.

Since doing my hygge accreditation I have been following the Steps to Success, I am focusing more on me and taking a slower approach in both my home life and my work life, spending more time outdoors exploring nature. I have never really been one for spending time outdoors but this has taught me to wrap up warm so I’m cosy and head off on adventure and be at one with nature.

Our setting very much focus’s on children’s interests and allowing them to lead their own learning, we hold weekly planning meetings with the children and they choose where they want to take their leaning that week and we will be there to support and guide. We really believe that a nursery environment should act as “the third teacher”, and great thought and consideration has been placed on where things are, what height they are at, how the paint containers are placed with their label faced to the wall to see all of the colours clearly, how things are laid out such as the wooden bricks grouped by size and shape, how inviting an activity or provocation looks, does it make a child want to go and explore? The nursery furniture and resources have been created by unwanted props. And found items that have been upcycled with great care and attention. We work with the film community, with the costume departments designing us costumes, and props designers creating furniture. Language underpins all that we do, so interesting items with interesting sounds such as “chandeliers” and “candelabras” have been placed into the environment, unusual items, unusual fruits and vegetables, to encourage and expand language development.

The difference in this setting compared to other settings I have worked in is fascinating. Allowing children to lead the way and focusing on their interests rather than ‘space’ or ‘transport’ themes has had a huge impact in the way the children learn and behave. The environment is always calm, the children always seem involved in something because our teachers have thought out the provocations based on what the children want.

Going forward I plan to continue adding parts of hygge into our nursery and also our mobile childcare facility which will really benefit from adding some cosiness, fairy lights and homely items due to it being a bus, I’m looking forward to working on developing the space into a beautiful, rich learning environment. I will also continue to extend my knowledge in all areas of early years including Hygge. I would like to do further courses from Hygge in the Early Years to strengthen my knowledge.

by Natasha Holgate