At Nara we value the beauty of our natural environment and aim to develop life-long curiosity and sense of wonder in the natural world.
Whether it’s caterpillars in a tree, the changing colour of the leaves or the types of visiting birds - all provide a focus for children’s innate curiosity, development and wellbeing.
Children at Nara can choose to play outside every day, as all our indoor spaces allow free flow of supervised movement to the outside. Our Educators centre planning around making the most of learning opportunities outside, and we ensure sufficient supervision by working with high educator-to-child ratios.
Our outdoor learning environments are living spaces that change every day, allowing children to engage in hands-on, open-ended play with sand, bark, grass, water, pebbles, dirt, rocks, plants, water – anything and everything that sparks their imagination!
Benefits of outdoor play for children include:
developing fine and gross motor skills, spatial awareness, balance and coordination
building confidence and learning to take risks in a safe and supervised setting
stimulating senses, language development, reflection and imaginative play
ensuring wellbeing and developing deep and lasting connection to the natural world.
In 2026 Nara is pursuing a project to create a ‘Food Forest’ adjacent to the Centre, allowing children to engage in growing and preparing food from our own garden.