Kinder Croft
Kinder Croft CIC (Community Interest Company): is an accredited outdoor children's nursery for 3-7-year-olds, that operates entirely within Leckmelm Wood. It was founded and continues to be run by members of the Planterose family, along with a board of volunteer directors from the local community. North Woods built all the nursery's structures from homegrown and milled timber.
The nursery provides full-time outdoor, child-led & play-based learning with a focus on engagement and connection with the natural environment. It also offers forest school outdoor activity clubs during the holidays and hosts occasional adult outdoor workshops. It holds regular open days, where members of the community and prospective parents can come and visit. Every family with a child of nursery age in the local community has their child attending for at least some hours each week. We have recently achieved accreditation to open for younger children, down to 2 years, and we will be inviting them in once we have finished building a new nursery shelter to suitably accommodate them.
A large part of our wider goals at Leckmelm Wood is to promote a deeper understanding, respect and appreciation for our living world. We want to help contribute to the raising of healthier and happier children who have a stronger understanding of, and appreciation for, the living world and their place in it. Kinder Croft CIC helps welcome the children and the wider local community into the outdoors and facilitates them to engage in a way that develops lasting respectful relationships with it.
Ecotone Cabins supports the operation of Kinder Croft CIC by providing a significant ongoing financial contribution to the maintenance and development of Leckmelm Wood’s shared mutual resources. This includes access tracks, footpaths, signage, utilities, services and other overheads necessary for the continued prosperity of both organisations. Ecotone Guest guests have the possibility to book their children into forest school clubs during the holidays. We are always enthusiastic to share the experiences and knowledge that establishing and running a successful outdoor nursery has given us.