Our approach

“Children only truly understand that which they invent for themselves” LORIS MALAGUZZI

Our approach is deeply rooted in our vision and values – that’s the ‘serious’ bit of our philosophy.

It is also centered in a shared understanding that children are born as competent learners; curious and capable of constructing their own learning, through play and exploration. So, we listen to them and we give them the time and space to explore the world. We offer them a variety of natural resources and open-ended materials to enable them to create and test their own theories, putting their interests at the very heart of everything we plan for them. We call this ‘enquiry-based learning’. We expose them to new experiences to encourage their creativity and provoke their thought processes. And we all have fun doing it!

Our approach is ever evolving and inspired by many schools of thought; in particular, those of the childhood centres of Reggio Emilia in Italy, famous for their excellence in early years education, and with whom we share a vision to make the world a better place. For this reason, you may notice that we use a few ‘buzz’ words in our day to day, to help us bring value to what we do with the children. For a few examples of the types of words we might use, click on ‘Our language’.

Of course we are committed to the principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), which sets the national standards for the learning, development and care of children up to 5 years old. These principles underpin all the experiences we offer to the children so that they have the opportunity to develop across all areas of learning.