Across our Cliffe House settings we are on a journey of adopting a new approach to our learning called the Curiosity Approach ; Curiosity is innate and within us all and adopting this approach together with our pedagogy of child led, play based learning enables our children to develop and grow in a holistic environment.

Maria Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Gutsey, Rudolph Steiner as well as many other great educators had the foundation of being prepared for life and a deep connection with nature as the foundation of their learning and curiosity being the key to this.

How we do this with our children is by firstly creating a really holistic environment of open ended resources that reflect real life experiences. Everything needs to be within easy reach and accessible for all our children and forgotten areas like children’s bathrooms and entrance hallways need to provide a talking point too. An exciting, ever evolving, small world display in an entrance way to nursery can help a child separate from their parents at drop off point and extend their learning at home too as you can encourage them to bring objects to add to the little world you have created.

Our room environments in all of our settings work as the ‘third teacher’ the first being a child’s parents and the second our nursery teachers so creating a home from home environment which is natural and calming in its approach whilst offering a rich diverse range of open ended resources really enables our children’s curiosity to life long learning.

What is an open ended resource you ask and why a real tea pot over a plastic one?

Well…. an open ended resource can be anything a child imagines it to be…. a stick can be a wand, a writing tool, used as a pole for a tent, a rocket, a boat…. the list is endless but it really engages a child’s curiosity to learn and extend their imagination through scaffolding their thoughts and asking them questions like ‘I wonder’ and ‘Let’s see’.

A plastic tea pot is a great resource too, it can’t be broken, it can be filled up with solids and liquids, you can pour from it and it’s a key element of ‘our World’ role-play but a real tea pot offers consequence, we have to look after it otherwise it will break, it is therefore a challenge to fill it with things as it make crack as a consequence…. the spout is a different shape and size and the weight varies from tea pot to tea pot so offers a more diverse experience when using it.

All the reasons are WHY we are creating environments rich in real life, loose parts and open ended object that bring awe and wonder, curiosity and magic to a child’s play.

For the second year in a row we are really excited to announce we have won two more Day Nurseries.co.uk awards!!

One is for our Burley-In-Wharfedale setting who have gained 10/10 on Day Nurseries.co.uk reviews from their lovely families which means they have been awarded a Top 20 Nurseries in Yorkshire and the Humber award and the second one we have gained is for all our seven Cliffe House nurseries.  This is a Top 20 mid size nursery group award for the lovely reviews we have got across the settings from all our parents.

We are so proud to win awards again from our parents reviews for the second year in a row and we can’t thank our families enough for such lovely words but also a HUGE thank you must go to all our nursery teams for their hard work each and every day, for their endless ideas to make our children’s days exciting and ever changing and especially during a global pandemic too…. we are all SUPER proud!

When our children join the Cliffe House family we are here to support them to give them the best start to their early years journey by preparing them for their future success.

Cultural capital is about giving our Cliffe House children the awe and wonder of the World around them by providing many different experiences and skills that they may not have had before through the seven areas of learning.

We spend a lot of time getting to know our new families during their first care plan visit so we know the experiences they have had at home before joining us, their interests, likes and dislikes so this is the foundation of starting their learning journey with us.

The exciting activities we create with our children start with them as the unique child and their interests at the forefront of this as if we are really interested in something, we will learn and develop in a more holistic way.

The seven areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation stage help us as a guide for children’s development and these seven areas are split into ‘prime’ areas of focus which are key for the early years of a babies life to then move onto enhancing their skills in the ‘specific’ areas which will widen their knowledge and experiences even further.

We love to hear what our children have enjoyed the night before nursery or over the weekend as that really helps us to extend their interest and learning whilst at nursery so having a lovely chat with families when they drop off in the morning is a key ingredient to develop a child’s cultural capital.

Across our settings the children have been really engaged and interested in learning about the importance of looking after our teeth!

Our pre-school children at Featherbank created a really exciting activity where they could see the affect of food that isn’t brushed off your teeth. They used tooth brushes to remove it and this lead to talking about different food and drink types and how they can all affect our oral health differently.

Do you love to be immersed in the magic of children’s play….. create an enchanting potion from petals and water….. make a broomstick come to life from a branch of a tree….. or a den from an array of materials…… then this is the job for you!!

We are looking for inspirational, bubbly, motivated and passionate people to join our Cliffe House teams to provide a home form home for life long learning. If you have no previous childcare experience that’s ok! You can join our in-house training academy and gain a childcare qualification whilst bringing awe and wonder to a children’s day.

If you would like more information about our current roles available please email Sarah on sarah.cliffehouse@yahoo.com

We are very proud of our OUTSTANDING Burley-In-Wharfedale setting and wanted to share with you some lovely new images that Ross School Photography took when they came to create our virtual tour.

Being based in the village of Burley provides lots of wonderful opportunities for the children to explore the great green spaces close by to nursery which the children really love.

Our Burley nursery is spaced out across two floors providing four different age group rooms in total as well as two separate wonderful outdoor areas.

To view the Burley nursery virtual tour click the link below and take a look at our fab pictures too.

https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=TUy4QwdrRYA

Yellow Room – this is our lovely baby room.

Red Room – This is our wonderful toddler room.

Blue Room – This is for our children aged 2-3.

Green Room – This is our pre-school room for children aged 3+

We can’t believe it is already half way through February!

So far this year we have had lots of occasions and festivals to celebrate and here are a few lovely pictures of how our children enjoyed Chinese New Year, Valentines and Shrove Tuesday celebrations.

It is really important that all our children have a broad range of experiences whilst at nursery so they can understand that people celebrate significant occasions in their lives in many different ways and that we all have different beliefs, feelings and values and that we need to respect these too.

This week across all our seven Cliffe House settings and our Out of School club at Horsforth Featherbank, the children have been learning all about their feelings and the feelings of others.

This is something we involve throughout the children’s daily routine but the first week in February marks #childrensmentalhealthawarenessweek

Talking openly about our feelings and sharing those with others as well as recognising and empathizing with the feelings of others too can make children more resilient to change and adapt the way they approach situations and their understanding of how other people feel.

It is really important we have open conversations – we do this by threading feelings into activities. This is a very powerful way of starting those conversations in a very subtle but effective way.

Wishing all our Cliffe House families a very Happy New Year…..what a start to the New Year it has been so far – Lockdown number 3!

The great thing is that we can remain open as normal across all our settings (still adopting our strict hygiene regimes and covid procedures) but this is wonderful news for all our children to be able to give them as much normality as possible. It is so crucial for under fives to get regular social interaction with their friends and to be able to develop and thrive through a stimulating learning environment. It is also really important that we can provide the ongoing care for all our families.

Last week some of our settings got a New Year surprise with the arrival of snow! At our Bramhope and Horsforth Trinity settings this was as much as 5 inches so the children had a wonderful time and loved exploring the winter wonderland!

Over the last month our families and staff members at each of our seven Cliffe House nurseries have been voting for their EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR!

We have such wonderful, dedicated and hard working staff teams and to gain an award from your fellow colleagues and nursery families is just the icing on the cake – especially when we have been living through a global pandemic!!

So here they are – our 2020 Employee of the Years!

Trinity – Jade              Baildon – Aimee                 Burley – Ocean          Featherbank – Zoe

Shipley – Nicola                   Bramhope – Sue                 Pudsey – Vikki

A HUGE WELL DONE TO YOU ALL

We are very lucky to have such wonderful staff teams delivering outstanding childcare every single day