About Us

We know that the early years of a child’s life are crucial to their development and our practitioners work to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in their education at Blossom Tree Children’s Nursery.

Curriculum for Excellence

At Blossom Tree we promote play-based education and adhere to national guidance from the Curriculum for Excellence – supporting the children to be:

We are supported in this through partnership working with our local council and work in partnership with Edinburgh Council to offer 1140 pre-school funding.

In addition to this we support and nurture our children with the implementation of Realising the Ambition: Being me and supporting Schematic Play principles.

Schematic Play

Schemas are behaviours that children go through when they are exploring the world and trying to find out how things work. Children have a very strong drive to repeat actions, move things from one place to another, cover things up, put things into containers, move in circles and throw things. Understanding schemas can help us to provide what children need for their learning.

At Blossom Tree, we nurture and support this crucial part of leaning and encourage the children to use a wide range of resources in a way that meets their learning interests.

Julie McMorrine - Nursery Founder and Owner

Welcome to our Blossom Tree Children’s Nursery website. My name is Julie, and I am the Nursery Director at both our Blossom Tree Children’s Nursery locations – Gilmerton & Fairmilehead.

I have always had a strong passion for working with children and hold my HNC Childcare and Education and a Degree in Childhood Practice from Edinburgh University. I am also a mother of two girls, so understand the importance of high quality and accessible childcare for families.

In 2011 I made the exciting decision to open Blossom Tree Children’s Nursery a family friendly and child centred Nursery environment for children 3 months – school age. Over the years the nursery, staff team and my role in the nursery has grown and developed, and through word of mouth we have gone from strength to strength.

In 2021 I took over another established nursery, Cosy Cottage Nursery School based on Northfield Broadway, Edinburgh.

And more recently in late 2023, we took over and opened Blossom Tree Children’s Nursery – Fairmilehead.

Day to day I work between Blossom Tree – Gilmerton & Fairmilehead and Cosy Cottage, I support the Senior Management team and on site Nursery Management, and am proud to say we have outstanding staff in all the nursery locations that work within the playrooms supporting and nurturing the children daily. Our staff team are professional and dedicated to their roles and to supporting and nurturing each child in their individual learning journey.