Healthy Early Years London Awards

The Gower School was awarded Healthy Early Years London (HEYL) gold and silver awards for the 2022-2023 academic year, the highest level achieved by a nursery in Islington so far. In the past we have been awarded the bronze and silver awards in 2020.

Healthy Early Years London is an awards scheme funded by the Mayor of London which supports and recognises achievements in child health, wellbeing and development in early years settings. We received our awards based on the improvements we have made to the nursery in regards to quality and time spent outside. The inspectors were particularly impressed with our Forest School programme and praised us highly for this. They also commended us on our use of the upstairs decking area for the children aged 14 months to three years in Les Petits Canards and Les Petits Poussins classrooms.

By improving our garden, we improved the quality of our outdoor space, which means the children want to spend more time outdoors. One of the additions made were new sand cascades. Through our provision of the Forest School the children are exposed to a higher quality outdoor environment and can explore experiences currently not available in our school garden (climb trees, bugs, mugs).

Building on the success of Healthy Schools London, HEYL will help to reduce health inequalities by supporting a healthy start to life across themes that include healthy eating, oral and physical health and early cognitive development.

Currently there are no early years provisions in Islington that have achieved the gold award and The Gower School is working toward the highest level. The school will have the bronze and silver award status until 2024. You can find The Gower School on the Healthy Early Years London’s Settings webpage.