The Customer
Found within the beautiful Cheshire East countryside, Early Birds Pre-School provides an umatched level of childcare for the children of Bunbury and surrounding areas. Boasting a variety of 5-star reviews, it's no wonder why parents are keen to get their children in this fantastic learning environment.
From providing a safe, nurturing environment to the warm and welcoming staff, this pre-school has helped hundreds of children develop vital skills and behaviours to prepare them for their futures. Ofsted even noted how the school staff are "highly sensitive to children's individual care needs" and "ensure (that these needs) are met throughout the day".
Nicola, the headteacher of Early Birds Preschool and Bunbury Aldersey CofE Primary School and her team were on the search for additional educational furniture which would enhance the current resource offering they had in place.
Returning For More
Before Nicola started to look for companies that could help the pre-school with their school based nursery idea, she remembered the incredible service Pentagon Play had delivered when revamping Bunbury Aldersey CofE Primary School's playground.
Ian Wood, one of our fantastic Playground Consultants, had worked with the school recently to install our famous Get Set Go Blocks and the Climb Through Tunnel. From start to finish, Nicola and the staff at the school were highly impressed with the knowledge, expertise and friendliness demonstrated by Ian and Pentagon Play.
Thoroughly impressed, Nicola remembered that Pentagon Play had recently partnered up with Millhouse to offer a fantastic range of Early Years Furniture to its customers. She quickly contacted our Online Shop team and explained how she trusted our company to help the school transform their indoor space too.
Maddy McGuire, a member of our Online Shop team, quickly built a rapport with Nicola and explained how Pentagon Play would love the opportunity to demonstrate our free-flow play expertise by helping the school establish a school based nursery.
Building the Dream School Based Nursery
During the call, Nicola and Hilary explained how they didn't have a large budget to work with, but knew that they just needed a few pieces of nursery furniture to transform the entire space. Maddy explained how our Early Years Furniture range has been created for any range of budgets, big and small.
Looking through the range, Nicola and Hilary found themselves amazed by the variety of furniture that would assist the pre-school in providing nursery provision. From jam-packed zone packages to versatile storage units, the school felt that Pentagon Play offered everything school based nurseries could ever need.
Whilst the pair looked through the entire range and made their wish list, Maddy continued to provide an unmatched level of support, constantly on stand-by to deliver expert advice and opinions for the pre-school. Like most of our customer, Nicola loved the attentive and friendly behaviour demonstrated by our Online Shop team.
As the list was nearly complete, the pair noticed how Pentagon Play was offering Millhouse furniture within their range. Wanting to know more about why the heavy focus on Millhouse, they asked Maddy on what makes Millhouse so special.
A Premium Brand for a Premium Place
Pentagon Play has always prided itself on providing our customers with only the best products on the market. From products that use high-quality materials to arriving with outstanding warranties, customers like Nicola can feel assured that they are only getting the best from Pentagon Play.
On the quest to provide our customers with an unmatched range of products, we came across the amazing Millhouse. Not only do Millhouse own the title of being the UK's leading manufacturer of early years furniture, but they've also been operating within the industry for over 40 years.
Noticing these incredible accolades, we started talking to Millhouse about forming a partnership. From this partnership, we would be able to provide schools and nurseries across the UK with state-of-the-art EYFS furniture and resources for competitive prices. In September 2024, we had the pleasure of publicly announcing Pentagon Play's Partnership with Millhouse.
Since this partnership, our Online Shop has grown in size, with hundreds of new products being added regularly. Not only are all of these products made from scratch-resistant maple melamine, but nearly every Millhouse product comes with fantastic guarantees (most being for life)!
Delivering Early Years Furniture with a Twist!
As Nicola and Hilary finalised their order, Maddy informed them about the free delivery offered by Pentagon Play. Unlike our competition, we are constantly striving to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the market, and provide only the best service possible.
In addition to the free delivery, the pair were informed that their order qualified them for the Millhouse Gold Service Delivery. Not only can customers select a desired date for their delivery, but the team will also unpack the furniture, build it, remove and recycle packaging. Just like the hundreds of customers before her, Nicola was blown away by this service.
We know how exciting it can be to order new early years furniture, with customers wanting it to arrive as quickly as possible. To accommodate this, we've managed to make our deliveries as quick as possible, with standard delivery times ranging between 2-4 weeks.
Transforming a Space with our Early Years Furniture Range
Transforming a space into a nursery provision can be quite a difficult task, but with the early years furniture acquired by Early Birds Preschool, it became a breeze. Nicola believed that the new school based nursery needed furniture from 3 key areas.
By including furniture from these 3 areas, the nursery would be able to provide an outstanding level of care, whilst providing an environment for the little ones to thrive in.
Role Play Furniture
Make a room a home by including some of the role play furniture into your setting. Pieces of furniture from this range are sure to help spread cosy vibes throughout your setting and keep your little ones calm and relaxed. Nicola decided to include:
- Millhouse Natural Kitchen Set of 4 - Cooker, Sink, Washer, Storage Dresser (H550mm)
- Home From Home Fireplace
Not only do these pieces of early years furniture allow children to escape into their imaginations and engage in role play, but they provide a beautiful aesthetic look to the setting. A school based nursery, like Early Birds Pre-school, are able to differentiate themselves more effectively and provide a safe place for development.
Messy Play Furniture
Mark making and messy play are two vital forms of play for nursery children, helping them learn more about the world around them through some messy fun! Whether it's paint, sand or water, Nicola wanted to incorporate some high-quality EYFS furniture that would provide numerous opportunities for messy play:
- Millhouse Mini Messy Zone
- Millhouse Double-sided 2 Station Whiteboard Easel with Low Storage Trolley
Both of these pieces of furniture provide a fantastic level of durability, being able to withstand heavy usage without showing signs of wear and tear. In addition, the furniture would allow Nicola and the staff to carry out messy play in a zoned area, helping the nursery environment to remain organised and clean.
Functional Furniture
Hard wearing and easy to clean, the functional nursery furniture that is include within our range is sure to make a practitioner's life a lot easier. From helping with storing away valuable items to providing a space to change the little ones, Nicola selected some key pieces of furniture:
- Small Rectangular Table (L960 x W695 x H400mm)
- 4 Sturdy Chairs (H200mm)
- Millhouse Stepped Baby Changing Unit
The sturdy table and light-weight chairs provide a fantastic area for children to sit at and engage in some fun and exciting activities. However, the Millhouse Stepped Baby Changing Unit is an absolute life saver for many nursery practitioners within the industry.
Not only is our most popular piece of functioning nursery furniture a perfect way to store all of your changing materials, but it also provides ease of access for toddlers, allowing them to climb up the structure and help themselves into it (or help with the younger babies).
Visiting Early Birds Pre-school
After a few weeks, Maddy reached out to Nicola to see if Pentagon could send a small team to the school. The goal was to capture content for our website and emails about the free-flowing nature of the nursery and the impressive setup of this school-based nursery. Once Nicola gave the go-ahead, we scheduled a visit to Early Birds Preschool.
On the day of the visit, Maddy McGuire and Lucy Cooke, Pentagon's Digital Sales Manager, made their way to the school. Upon arrival, they were warmly welcomed by the fantastic administrative team and Nicola. As they walked toward the newly transformed nursery room, Nicola shared her delight with the results and expressed her satisfaction with choosing Pentagon Play once again.
Upon entering the room, Maddy and Lucy were truly impressed by how the space had been transformed. Each Millhouse product was thoughtfully placed, enhancing the room's ambiance and creating an ideal environment for nursery children. Nicola explained the significant impact the
Looking around, the team were amazed to see these new nursery children flourish in a new environment and feel comfortable straight away. Speaking to Nicola, we were told how Pentagon has done a fantastic job with both the outdoor play space and the indoor classroom space, creating the perfect free-flow play area.
Hearing this meant a lot to our team as this is something we pride ourselves on creating truly seamless free-flow environments that children can excel in. We work closely with the school to understand their aims and work around pre-existing equipment to create a smooth transition between the two areas.
Everyone at Pentagon Play loves this case study as it just highlights that you don't need hundreds of pieces of early years furniture to transform a space. Not only can just a few key pieces of furniture make a huge difference, but they can also save you a lot more of your budget and provide you with more space.
Use Your School Based Nursery Funding with the Experts
As April and May start approaching, schools who applied for the School Based Nursery funding grant last year will start to see their payments coming through. Once you receive this payment, the Government expect you to operate a fully-functioning school-based nursery before September 2025.
This deadline might seem tight and quite stressful, but we're here to help! Just like we did with Early Birds Preschool, our team will work closely with you to craft the perfect indoor environment to compliment your outdoor equipment, creating an effective free-flow space.
We genuinely hope that you'll consider us as soon as the funding comes in, as our teams are excited and thrilled to introduce schools across the nation to operating a school based nursery. If you need anymore information, please contact our team and we'll get right back to you.
