Acorns Nursery at Netley Primary School is a single-storey nursery building for 20, 2-year-olds. It sits in the heart of the Netley’s Campus in Euston which also includes a 2FE Primary School, Centre for Autism and an Adult Learning Centre.
In 2014, the government made more funding available for 2 year-old nursery places with a pledge to provide 15 hours a week of education to around 40% of 2 year-olds. In September 2017, Acorns Nursery opened its doors to its first children.
The brief was to provide an exemplar space for 20, 2-year olds on a tight urban site: a learning space that would provide a variety of opportunities for formal and informal play and a small but wild external environment to stimulate the senses of children; many of whom live in flats and have little interaction with green outdoor spaces. The nursery includes its own independent access, a nursery kitchen, a staff office and a space for quiet reading.
The site for Acorns sits between a new school building completed in 2014 and a triple-decker, Victorian Board School: the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of the site. Acorns is conceived as the cheeky ‘Jack’: a single-storey building that mimics its larger neighbours with its flush pointed red-brick, diamond-shaped mirror tiles externally and acoustic shaped tiles internally. The frog-eye window helps to scoop light into the depth of the plan and provides views of the sky.
