A PERTH daycare centre is giving parents the option of letting their children sleep outside in a bid to stave off winter illnesses.

Children at Little Learners Early Development and Education Centre in White Gum Valley spend their nap times outside.

The centre’s owner and director, Ken Scott-Hamilton, said that for the past 11 weeks, children aged between two and five had slept outside, even in light rain.

“I have always said there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing,” he said.

“All kids should be able to engage in all kinds of conditions.”

Mr Scott-Hamilton said he implemented the initiative after researching how children got sick during winter.

He said that at this time of year, sleeping inside with a lot of other children could negatively affect children’s health.

“During the winter months, a lot of our children get sick by breathing in the same dry, stale, recycled air, so we decided to give them the opportunity of sleeping outside,” Mr Scott-Hamilton said.

“Over the course of that 11-week period less than one per cent of our children were absent, which is phenomenal.”

He said all the parents let their children sleep outside, and children preferred it.

The centre has rules on when the children can sleep outside.

“If there is more than a 40 per cent chance of rain or if it’s less than 16C, they don’t sleep outside,” Mr Scott-Hamilton said.

“We give children the choice of not only if they want to sleep outside, but where they would like to sleep. We have a lot of natural surfaces — woodchips or grass, and if it’s drizzling we put up tarpaulins. The kids love it.”

During summer, children will not sleep outside if it is above 30C.

He said he noticed positive changes in the children’s sleeping patterns and cognitive awareness after sleeping outside.

Mr Scott-Hamilton said he would like to see outside sleeping implemented in more childcare centres.