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.