
On Tuesday 20th June 2023, a freak flash flood happened, causing significant damage to our interior space. As a result of this we had to adapt how we provided childcare whilst repairs were made to the flooring, walls and internal woodwork of our building. Thanks to generous loans of gazebos, tents, AC units and fans from our families and local villagers we were able to set up in our large garden space and ran the provision entirely outdoors between June - October. The staff and children showed tremendous resilience and creative thinking to enable us to continue operating.
We are now back in our newly refurbished building but there is plenty of work left to get everything how we want it as well as some further preventative drainage work to stop this happening again. It has been a slog to get to this stage, to say the least, but we have been so grateful for the positive attitudes of the Fidgets families and all the support from parents and carers.
We are now back in our newly refurbished building but there is plenty of work left to get everything how we want it as well as some further preventative drainage work to stop this happening again. It has been a slog to get to this stage, to say the least, but we have been so grateful for the positive attitudes of the Fidgets families and all the support from parents and carers.
The flood
We were slightly surprised upon arriving at work to find the little garden had transformed into a swimming pool!
The dream team
We are not just Early Years Teachers... we are events managers, marquee erectors, removal specialists, builders, problems solvers, creative thinkers, logistic managers and a great disaster recovery team… With less that ideal weather conditions over the summer we have become experts in putting up and down various tents and marquees, as well as holding our staff meetings outdoors in the dark!
Fidgets Fest' in action
Using donated tents, gazebos, a large events marquee and pods to house our office and kitchen areas, we ensured the children stayed dry and cool throughout the various weather conditions we experienced over the summer. We adapted to have an indoor-outdoor set up so the children could free flow between the various shelters whilst still have access to our garden. Our first week was filled with bubbles, music and face painting to get us into the festival spirit!!
Building work
The building work began over the summer holidays which provided lots of opportunities for the children to see the rooms transform. We watched skip lorries, huge vehicles bringing in office pods, cranes and a constant supply of building activity. The children were able to observe the building from start to finish be ripped out and rebuilt.
The joys of British weather!
We had to deal with a few occurrences of freak high winds over the evenings and weekends... on this occasion we didn't manage to save all the tents and had lots of clearing up to do before the children were back!
Getting there...
We were able to gradually move the children back in from October as the rooms were finished and our new equipment began arriving. The Community Playthings camera crew visited us to begin work on a case study about how we managed to stay open through creative thinking and perseverance, as well as how their amazing furniture stood up to the challenge of being used outside. The children particularly enjoyed hunting for the camera drone which lost charge whilst flying over the vineyard and had to be recovered by our Preschool search team!!
Throughout November we will be finishing off the minor details, getting our display boards and shelving back up ready for proudly showing off our new artwork. Once everything is finally finished we will be holding an open afternoon for all of our families to come in and see the new and improved Fidgets!
Throughout November we will be finishing off the minor details, getting our display boards and shelving back up ready for proudly showing off our new artwork. Once everything is finally finished we will be holding an open afternoon for all of our families to come in and see the new and improved Fidgets!
Fidgets Fest' 2024 - The anniversary celebration!
Lamberhurst Vineyard
Furnace Lane Lamberhurst Kent, TN3 8LA |