Big Build
We did it!
Our Challenges
Thank you to all our parents, past and present, our community, local businesses, staff and trustees for achieving such a wonderful project. In 2018, the Trustees took steps to appoint a manager to drive the capital rebuild of Pavilion Preschool, from that moment we focused our efforts on realising what most thought was not possible. We proved anything is possible if you put your mind to it!
The old timber frame Portakabin building was over 40 years old and at the end of its life, out played and over loved. Without a new building the preschool was set to close. The old Portakabin site also restricted the potential grown of Pavilion, with demand for wrap around care and preschool places growing in the community, Pavilion needed to have the flexibility to extend services to ensure its survival. With early years funding in crisis, income sources needed to encompass more than government funding.
The team at Pavilion successfully raised the capital funding need to construct a purpose built community childcare building. Thank you for all individual donations in our community as well as support from Power to Change, The Eleanor Rathbone Trust, LCVS, The Steve Morgan Foundation and the Mayor of Liverpool. We opened a brand new preschool on the 27th November 2020 and added Breakfast and Afterschool Clubs in September 2021. We have been able to hire the building at weekends for community and local business use.
Dreams can come true!
Working with Liverpool architect practice Architectural Emporium, and local builders Elis Williams Ltd, we designed and developed our super new building. Environmentally conscious with an air source heat pump and underfloor hearting. Purpose designed, safe and secure single storey building filled with natural light that opens directly on to re-landscaped gardens and outdoor play areas, vegetable plots, dens and mud kitchen. The design brief followed our principles of early years education allowing the best space for the staff and children to play and learn in partnership. There is a reception area and cloak room, a central adaptable play space, an atelier, a kitchen area which the children can access, plus improved toilet facilities. There is a space for parents to talk, to each other or the early years staff team. There is a place for the staff to work, think and rest. Everything was designed in partnership with the children and staff, with the children’s curious nature in mind, opening up resources and new learning opportunities. Our new building allows flexibility in how we engage with our children and enable us to fully embrace our passion for exploratory play.
The primary objective was to continue to offer the best preschool experience for the Aigburth community into the future. Our new building gives us the tools to expand our business model, offering breakfast and after school and holiday clubs, or hiring the facility to local business owners to run community based programs such as music classes, adult learning, mindfulness classes, art lessons, sewing club, or yoga. To enquire about hiring Pavilion, contact admin@pavilionpreschool.org
Special thanks goes to the following organisations:
