Play - our priority
Foundations children develop a love of learning from a very young age. Our beautiful setting is filled with curiosities, open ended resources, endless opportunities and most of all, educators who understand how to deepen, challenge and extend children's learning through their long term interests. We prioritise learning through high quality play experiences so that children feel invested in their learning.
Our Learning Environment - the Third Teacher
As a Reggio Emilia inspired setting, we hold firm with the belief that a child's learning environments act as their third teacher. Our learning environments have been lovingly crafted and cultivated and are constantly evolving depending on the interests and needs of the children. Instead of choosing catalogue - bought resources which can be limiting, we fill our environment with a variety of objects from various sources, using a mixture of new and recycled resources to inspire, motivate and enable children's learning.
If you are interested in our environment and would like to see one of many examples of how it is used by the adults to foster learning, you may like to download one of our 2 minute case studies .
That said, we know that resourcing on its own is not enough to provide the highest quality learning experiences for children, which is why we invest in the highest calibre of educators to ensure the best learning experiences for our children. With reflective practice at the heart of what we do, we spend time developing and considering on our practice through high quality conversations and bespoke professional development for ourselves and colleagues in the sector.
Outdoors
We make use of our different outdoor areas at and around nursery to widen the experiences of our children. Our 'meadow' area is full of ever evolving challenge and opportunity, whilst our polytunnel and front garden are used all to produce food for cooking
'Playing our Part'
Community work is hugely important to us and is integral to our curriculum. We look for sustainable, meaningful ways for our children to support their local community.
These pillars of citizenship include litter picking, supporting our local foodbank and maintaining our plot in Batley Memorial Garden.
Projects
Holding true to the principles of Reggio Emilia, our long term projects are integral to our practice.
Our current projects are 'Fish," "Sculpture" and 'Cookbook"
To read a little more about what a Foundations Nursery Project involves click here!
Food at Foundations
Our shared love of food is at the core of life at Foundations but runs much deeper than the daily menus cooked from scratch by our well loved, qualified chef Anna. To find out a little more about food at Foundations, click here.
Atelier
Creativity takes many different forms at Foundations and is integral to our children's development. Our atelier is a creative space, reserved for artistic exploration and one that allows our educators to offer regular opportunities for children to work creatively on small and large scale with a range of exciting media including clay, wire, light, wood and sound.
Children’s Voice
Great value is placed on the different experiences, ideas and opinions that children bring to Foundations. Our ethos is underpinned by a strong culture of children’s voice in all aspects of nursery life. Educators devote time and full attention to children’s ideas, respecting their views and enabling them to co construct decisions alongside adults about their learning and care.