Forty nurseries and early years centres in Edinburgh are benefiting from an investment into garden water features to give young children the opportunity to experience natural, active play outdoors.

£68,000 has been set aside to support improvements to nursery grounds for water play over the next few months as part of the Outdoor Play and Active Learning programme that over the last two years has made significant enhancements to the outdoor play experience for children.

Twenty nurseries and early years centres will work with a children's play consultant in order to develop their ideas and implement their plans. Another eighteen establishments will be given funding to design their own imaginative water play environments and support will be provided by the Council's outdoor play and learning staff.

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Garden water features have already been installed in the grounds of both Spinney Lane Nursery School and Gilmerton Child & Family Centre in recent months as part of the project.

Councillor Paul Godzik, the city's Education Convener, said: "We firmly believe that young children should have the best available play environments and we want more children to experience outdoor, natural play during their time with us. The investment will benefit young children for many years to come and put this Council at the forefront of delivering high quality nursery provision for the city's children."

Spinney Lane Nursery School was the first nursery to have a water feature installed as part of the project and it has proved an instant success with the children. The design features a dry river bed and hand pump that allows pupils to interact with the installation.

Gilmerton Child & Family Centre have also benefited from a new outdoor water play space for the children that was installed earlier this month.

Depute Manager, Nick Reynolds, said: "The children have loved the opportunity to experience outdoor water play. The feature has opened up a whole range of new opportunities for the nursery garden - a place to find materials for bridges and dams or a simple fishing rod. It's been fantastic to watch them invent so many different ways to use it."

(GK)