DUNMORE Nursery, in Ballingry, has been shortlisted for a national Play More Award.

Play More was set up to help deserving nurseries improve their outdoor play areas with financial support or murals.

It is an initiative which was set up by Sudocrem and has been designed to encourage parents and children to get back in touch with nature and explore the greatest playground on earth- the outdoors.

As part of the campaign, Sudocrem carried out a survey which asked 200 children between the ages of 4 to 8 years old to identify some of the creepy crawlies in Britain.

The survey revealed that 9 out of 10 children (89%) were unable to recognise a butterfly even though there is an abundance of native British insects, with around 27,000 insect species calling the UK home. Moreover, 51% didn’t know what a Bumblebee looks like. And, surprisingly, 1 in 3 (29%) didn’t realise that bees make honey.

As part of the campaign, Play More asks parents to nominate a deserving nursery and Dunmore Nursery has been shortlisted to receive support for their outdoor play area.

One member of staff from the Dunmore said: "We are in one of the most deprived areas of Scotland and although we try our best to make our garden interesting we do suffer from constant vandalism.

"A tall fence would cost a lot of money but would mean we’d be able to develop the garden without worrying about everything getting damaged. We have 2-5 year olds”.

The campaign has won the support of the BBC's Chris Packham, who said: “I was very fortunate when I was a child because I was encouraged to interact with the outdoors- looking under rocks and searching under logs and hedges to find creepy crawlies.

"If you just open your eyes, you’ll see that there is an incredible natural world out there waiting to be discovered”.

Sudocrem’s Brand Manager, Georgina Fotopoulou, said, “Outdoor play is important and whilst children might scrape their knees and elbows, it is an important part of a child’s learning and development process. We’ve been healing skin for generations and we’re proud to promote the spirit of adventure with Play More.”