ToyBox nursery Brighton delighted to announce it has been awarded the Sanctuary Nursery Award

BWC’s Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ pre-school, run from within the Women’s Centre, provides support to children and families in the city of Brighton. Brighton itself is recognised as a City of Sanctuary, working to provide a welcoming environment for refugees seeking sanctuary from war and persecution with a hospitable and welcoming culture.

For ToyBox, receipt of the Sanctuary Nursery Award recognises their aim to celebrate common humanity and the contributions made by those who have come here for safety, while tackling the isolation and fear faced by many seeking sanctuary.

ToyBox staff work tirelessly to build trusting relationships with families, giving parents time to talk, in line with the trauma-informed practice central to the nursery’s ethos. ToyBox is uniquely placed to support families, offering in-house wrap-around support for the women whose children attend ToyBox, enabling them to access services such as therapy, peer support, or housing help.

Having signed the City of Sanctuary Charter, Organisation Pledge, and the local Sanctuary on Sea pledge, ToyBox staff have undergone training, promoting the Fundamental British Values of equality, inclusion, and democracy, to tackle challenges faced by refugee, asylum seeking and migrant communities through the creation of a culture of safety.

Toybox demonstrates a firm understanding of the importance of a sense of belonging for children and have nurtured this with “News Flash” sessions where the children can come together and share their own stories, supported by interpreters if required. Alongside this, staff have created a “Sharing Circle” for children to freely express their own culture and religion and learn about those of other children in the nursery.

The ToyBox mission

ToyBox envisions a world where all children are honoured and respected for their potential, capabilities, and humanity.

ToyBox champions a culture of reflection, and actively encourages children from all backgrounds to celebrate and embrace diversity and inclusion with exploration through stories, play and visits in the wider community. The team, under Manager Gemma Turner, are recognised for working to the very highest standard of practice. They have developed a pedagogy that draws on multiple philosophies in order to meet the individual needs of each child and, by extension, developing a bespoke service that provides wrap-around care for women and families of the children that attend. The ethos of inclusion and additional support is one fully embodied by the nursery and BWC.