Our ethos and approach

About School House Nurseries

Established in 2002, these family-run nurseries are inspired by the Montessori approach to early years.

Our history

20 years on, still passionate about early years

We opened our first Montessori nursery school over 20 years ago.

Since then we and our fantastic staff teams have cared for and educated hundreds of children.

What we teach the children does develop with the times, we are struck by how much of what we do stays the same.

By putting teaching first, and focusing on the needs of each individual child, we retain the essence of what we’ve always been – a great place for children to spend their early years.

Lindy and Stuart, Owners

The child’s sensibility to absorb language is so great that he can acquire foreign languages at this age [birth to three]. 
 
Maria Montessori

Our ethos

A life-long love of learning

Our approach

We aim to give children the very best start in life by tapping into their boundless enthusiasm for learning something new and making friends.

To help children learn.

To help children have fun.

To keep children safe.

To help children love the outdoors.

To help children make healthy choices.

To feed children healthy food.

To help children make friends.

To give children confidence.

To help children appreciate their families.

To help children become ever more independent.

To help children engage with adults.

To provide children a relaxed and calm classroom environment.

To allow children the choice to play outside when they want.

To teach children the importance of manners.

To give parents peace of mind.

To run a nursery that’s better today than it was yesterday.

Our curriculum

Teaching skills that will last a lifetime

We want the children to be happy – to play, have fun and make friends.

But we also want them to learn – at their own pace and appropriate to their age. So we have taken the national Early Years Foundation Stage and built on it to arrive at our own carefully-considered, bespoke curriculum.

We believe that the environment itself is the best teacher, and we prepare it like a bird would prepare a nest for her chicks. Rather than dictating what a child should learn and when, we design the classroom to fit the needs of the child, rich experiences balanced by beauty and order. This takes a great amount of effort, but we are rewarded when a child enters and is inspired to learn. In a typical Montessori classroom, you would see objects in baskets, trays, or boxes arranged on a shelf attractively. Each work contains a purposeful work that is designed to teach a specific concept.

Please click here to view our full curriculum.

We recognize that children are unique individuals who are not likely to master the exact same concepts or have the same interests at the same time. We celebrate this uniqueness and allow each child to develop at his or her pace. We believe that learning is a natural process that develops spontaneously. When we place our trust in the child, we are often surprised at the immense amount of learning that takes place through the child's interaction with his or her world.

By the time a child leaves nursery we would like them to…..

Practise what to do in an emergency - call 999/112

Get dressed, put their coat and shoes on

Ride a balance bike or scooter once round the playground

Take part in a play or concert

Share and work with friends collaboratively

Negotiate conflict

Please click here to view our full curriculum.

Our classroom team

Our staff are all highly-qualified childcare professionals and most have many years of experience. Just as importantly, we employ caring people who love working with children and who want to give them the very best start in life.

Whatever our backgrounds, we all enjoy getting to know the children and take great pride in their achievements.

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Our aims and objectives

School House Nurseries  aims to provide a safe, happy and stimulating environment where your child can learn through encouragement, sensitivity to others and mutual respect.

We strive to develop self-confidence as an independent learner creating a positive attitude towards their first experience of school.

We encourage the ability to express thoughts and feelings and have an understanding of the environment and a sense of the contribution of all living things to each other.

We work  in partnership with the child’s parent or guardian and regularly inform them of their child’s progress.