Children are active learners who learn best through play and exploration. As a setting we believe that creating an environment in which the children are free to explore, investigate and develop relationships at their own pace is the best way to support their learning and development. An environment rich in opportunities for self exploration leads to children who are happy, confident and eager to learn.

We  support cross curricular learning not limiting learning to a single space. We encourage children to make choices in their learning and support this by developing activities based on their interests and fascinations in order to move them on to the next steps along their journey.  Staff play an important part in the children’s learning and development, they understand when to intervene in the child’s play for example suggesting “what if…” in order to move the play on or the need to sit back and observe the learning unfold as the children explore. Staff are skilled at making the judgements needed when supporting the children in free play. The staff also support each child’s learning through direct teaching during our focused activity time, this may take place on a 1:1 basis, in a small group or a whole group situation. This teaching is based on the next steps identified for individual children or our curriculum aims.