Early Years Education
Our Approach
We are here to support both you and your child during these important early years. Working together is key to helping your child reach their full potential.
We encourage you to share insights about your child’s growth and development at home, just as we will share what we observe at nursery. Through regular conversations, observations, and reviews, we can build a complete picture of your child’s progress and ensure they receive the best support possible.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
The EYFS is the framework that guides learning, development, and care for children from birth to age 5. All Ofsted-registered early years settings, including nurseries, preschools, and reception classes, follow these standards.
We base our practice on four guiding principles:
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Unique Child: Every child is a capable learner.
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Positive Relationships: Building strong, supportive connections.
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Enabling Environments: Spaces that respond to children’s needs and interests.
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Learning and Development: Recognising that every child progresses at their own pace.
Areas of Learning:
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Prime Areas: Communication & Language, Physical Development, Personal, Social & Emotional Development
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Specific Areas: Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, Expressive Arts & Design
Our EYFS-based approach nurtures the whole child, fostering confidence, curiosity, and a love of learning.
Curriculum
At the heart of our approach is nurturing the best version of every child. Our carefully crafted curriculum aims to develop confident, caring, creative, and resilient learners, equipping them with the skills and mindset to thrive today and in the years ahead.
We celebrate each child’s unique learning journey, tailoring our teaching to their individual pace and needs. Rooted in the EYFS and enriched by Montessori, Froebel, and Forest School philosophies, our approach fosters independence, creativity, hands-on exploration, and a strong bond with nature. This holistic blend supports all seven areas of learning, nurturing mind, body, and spirit.
Montessori saw that children learn best by doing, and self-motivated learners form positive images of themselves as confident, successful. Specially designed resources nurture independence and love of learning from early age. The Montessori approach is holistic, aiming to develop the whole child, believing birth to six is the period of greatest learning capacity.
1. Practical Life
These activities help develop and refine co-ordination and concentration. The child learns skills to care for themself, the environment and to be an independent and useful member of any group. Real and functional equipment offer challenges to bring deep satisfaction and mastery of everyday skills.
For example, they can transfer pasta from bowl to bowl using a scoop, pour water from a jug through a funnel, thread some colourful beads onto a string, use brushes, cloths and sponges to clear up, practice doing up zips or buttons to dress themselves, or enjoy preparing fruit snacks.
2. Sensorial
Pre-school children learn through their senses - this section of our environment lets them explore through touch, feel, sight, hearing and even taste.
For example, they can build towers of blocks, feel 3D shapes, match sounds, colours and textures to start to categorise and make sense of the rich experiences in the everyday world. They will start to build their own mental concepts of "red", or "smooth", "heavy" or "round". Since they are particularly sensitive to language we always use the words to help describe their experiences at every step of discovery.
3. Mathematics
Using songs, baking sessions, outdoor games, puzzles etc. the child is introduced to early mathematical concepts of quantity, sequencing, matching and pairing. These building blocks lead them forward to use the specially designed mathematical activities using rods, beads, spindles and cubes. They can visualise the patterns and structures of numbers and gradually, step by step, gain confidence and understanding of numbers.
4. Literacy
Pre-schoolers learn language at an amazing rate: there are lots of interesting picture books, we play phonetic games and start to learn phonics gently using giant alphabet letters. For example, in our cosy book den, they can snuggle up at any time and become totally absorbed. Using sandpaper letters they can feel the phonetic letter sounds without knowing they are learning to read. All these prepare the child for reading and writing, while acquiring more knowledge and naturally beginning to notice words in their environment.
5. Cultural Awareness
Montessori educators believe that understanding the natural world and other cultures helps children find their place in the world. Exploring similarities and celebrating differences fosters inclusion and tolerance. Our activities include Geography, Botany, Zoology, and Science, and we celebrate a variety of festivals throughout the year.
Children can explore globes, puzzle maps, or create a volcanic eruption. Our nature table displays treasures from the beach, woods, and gardens for investigation, and Continent boxes feature photographs, dolls, and artefacts from around the world.
6. Expressive Art and Design
The child has the freedom to explore creative materials with constant free access to arts and crafts materials for painting, gluing, sticking, printing and model making activities. They will be invited to take part in music and dance sessions and have constant access to rhythm instruments and different styles of music and learn a wide repertoire of traditional and new songs and nursery rhymes. They will find resources to engage in imaginative role play scenarios.
What is Forest School?
Forest School is an inspiring, child-centred approach that helps children build confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning in a natural environment. Sessions connect with the changing seasons, offering challenges and discoveries in the outdoors. Children can climb fallen logs, splash in muddy puddles, create art from sticks, leaves, and moss, or simply pause to listen to the wind in the treetops.
At Forest School, every child is seen as:
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Equal, unique, and valuable
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Capable of exploring and discovering
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Entitled to appropriate risk and challenge
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Empowered to choose and drive their own learning
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Able to experience regular success
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Encouraged to build positive relationships with themselves and others
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Connected to and respectful of the natural world
Froebel
The Froebel approach laid the foundation for modern early childhood education by focusing on play, creativity, and child-centered learning. It recognizes that young children learn best through hands-on experience and natural curiosity, with educators serving as guides.
