OUGD505 - Studio Brief 2 - Interview

An interview was conducted with a nursery school teacher who works at Swan Meadow Nursery in Delph and manages children dietary needs on a daily basis. Getting a perspective from someone who sees a child's development on a daily basis will be crucial to understand considerations which need to be addressed within the development of my project.


What is the procedures taken at nursery to make sure a child eats healthily?

• The senior members of staff such as the room leaders, managers and nursery director meet.
• The nursery nurses feedback which methods are or are not working
• The director and manager work alongside the cook to come up with nutritious meals
• Parents are involved, questionnaires are sent out to parents asking for their suggestions for meals

As an individual, what procedures do you have to take to encourage children to eat more healthy?

• They have to have access to water at all times, they have a breakfast, a mid morning snack and then lunch. They also have their tea at nursery before they go home.
• The snacks have to be varied, they are mainly fruit, vegetable sticks, bread sticks, raisins, rice cakes. Some nursery however, only provide fruit as snacks. This could be an indication that a character based platform around fruit in early education could be really beneficial to their enthusiasm towards fruit.
• There is nothing like juice, only whole milk or water.
• The staff attempt to get the child as involved as possible with the preparation and serving of the food as an encouragement to eat. This process is called self serve

What effect do you see this having?

• It makes the children more willing to try things as they have done it themselves, they are choosing what to put on they plate.
• Children want to be the role models, they admire their parents and their tutors and just want to do what they see you doing.

What procedures in place for exercise?

• They go out at least once a day and have to be involved in a physical activity. They also have one exercise inside such as dancing to do inside for their expressive development along with their physical.
• The older children tend to go outside more.

What impact have you seen packaging have on young children?

Anything with cartoons which they will watch at that age, they will want over other packaging products. For example, a yogurt with Thomas the Tank Engine, they will cry for this over a normal yogurt.



Do you use technology in any way with the children?

Yes, iPads are used in an educational way, educational games, puzzles, colour games, number games, rhymes and songs. They don't access the internet and the staff supervise their using. It is all about independence so the children can use these facilities whenever they want, they are always there for the children top go and find. In the younger rooms however, it is only available when the adult has them out. This can be during activities such as circle time or story time.



Would you say technology is now a big part of the child's development?

Yes it is now the norm in education, children can usually use the iPads at around the age of 2. They also have a fake computer but it doesn't work, only iPads are available for the children. We also use a smart board in pre school which has educational games on.



Do you think my augmented reality concept would be viable within nurseries as a tool to encourage children to eat more healthy?

Yes, I think it would need to be accepted outside the nurseries first but then it would be used within child development at nurseries.