Ayshford Sansome were appointed as design architects for this new pre-school day nursery in Witham, Essex that demonstrates the value of great design. Our response to a complex brief has satisfied conflicting requirements of the different user groups; staff, parents and children, while maintaining layout flexibility to meet continuously evolving education standards and staffing. The internal spaces have been designed to make best use of daylight, and finishes carefully chosen to evoke natural materials and colours to create a calm learning environment where the children do not feel overwhelmed by their surroundings. In addition to the 6 main home base learning spaces that are easily supervised, there are children scale sanitary facilities, a fully fitted commercial style catering kitchen, buggy storage, a welcoming reception area and self-contained staff spaces. Each of the home-bases are loosely divided by surface changes to suit various types of learning/play and have direct access to a shared and secure, multi-surface, external play area. Finishes used for internal and external spaces have been selected to ensure these flow into one another, thereby encouraging free-flowing play that enriches the learning experience.