This is how I propose to educate the children and help them to grow, learn and develop.

It’s about the techniques and strategies that I use to provide opportunities for development and about how my relationships and interactions with the children can affect them.

After studying the principles behind many of the leading Theorists, (including: Steiner, Reggio Emilia, Bandura, Piaget, Athey, Vygotsky, Te Whāriki, Watson, Bowlby, Freud, Bruner, Gardner, Goleman, McMillan, Bronfenbrenner, HighScope, Curiosity Approach and Forest school) I have developed my own beliefs and my own unique practice.

• I believe that children have the right to be loved for who they are; attachment and strong, close personal relationships are key.
• I see every child as a strong, capable and resilient individual, ready to explore.
• Children develop best in a calm, peaceful, familiar, predictable and unhurried environment, that doesn’t over-stimulate them.
• The homely environment makes children feel welcome, safe and comfortable, and each child has a place where their things belong.
• Learning is experienced through regular daily tasks and activities, where ‘doing’ and repetition embeds this learning about the real world. Routines give security.
• Natural and real-life resources that are open-ended, spark curiosity and the children’s imaginations.
• Problem solving skills are developed through a focus on exploratory and child-led play, and through demonstrating thinking out-loud.
• Children are natural communicators, expressing themselves in 100 different languages and ways, and it is my job to support and understand them, and help them to develop their unique personalities.
• I have the time and patience to really engage children in their conversations and pay attention to what they are communicating.
• Children are independent thinkers, who build their own learning through play and I support them to do this.
• I trust and encourage children to explore, discover and engage in risky play, so that they learn their own limits and ultimately how to keep themselves safe.
• I understand that I am an important role model and so I demonstrate appropriate behaviour, being calm and respectful at all times.
• Children’s natural fascinations and schemas are encouraged, as important vehicles for their learning and development.
• I use scaffolding to help children build and consolidate their learning over time.