Our Ethos
We aim to provide very high quality childcare in a nurturing environment in two languages.
Children only have one childhood – and we want to help give them the best start in life. The children’s needs will always come first for every decision we make.
It is a tremendous honour to be given the responsibility to look after other people’s children – and we take this very seriously, and we do so with pride.
The Montessori method combines a philosophy with a practical approach based on the idea of freedom and independence for the child but within a structured environment. It takes into consideration the child’s physical, intellectual, emotional and social abilities and develops these in a specially prepared environment. What is most unique about the method is the detailed emphasis given to sensorial experiences, developing the five senses and providing a solid foundation for speech, writing and arithmetic. Our curriculum is a blended approach of Montessori with the EYFS, the EarlyYears Foundation Stage.
A key characteristic of the Montessori approach is a ‘prepared environment’ consciously designed to support the child’s developmental needs. Every child develops at a different rate and the wide range of unique Montessori materials allows each child to choose freely from the materials suitable to individual progression.
The welfare of our children is paramount. We know the importance of keeping children safe. We have risk assessments, a safe recruiting process, and a safeguarding policy. We have more staff than legally required and always have at least two members of staff with the children at any given time.
We want and aim to provide a loving, safe and homely environment where our children can follow ‘their inner teacher’ and develop at their own pace at a time when their mind is at its most absorbent.
We aim to work in partnership with parents, to keep them informed and involved. We aim to delight parents whenever we can – this means we will try our very best not to over promise anything. Instead, we aim to set realistic expectations, and beat the expectations when we can. One of our mottos is: “under promise, over deliver”. We know unexpected things happen, and aim to have spare floaters who we know to help when this happens.
We wish to create a nurturing environment for the children, parents and team. Kindness, compassion and care should be evident in everything. We aim to be ethical and honest in everything we do. This might require us to have an honest or difficult conversation with someone – but we have control over the manner in which we do it, and kindness should still be evident in these situations.
We aim to respect and train our team, as we know that the quality of our nurseries depends on the quality of our staff. For this reason we invest heavily in our team and their training. We have an equal opportunities policy. We have a strong emphasis on Staff Welfare, because they deserve it and children benefit from it also.
We believe the world is what we make it – so we contribute positively. We are constantly improving conditions for children, our staff, the environment and the world at large. We believe in building for the future. We want the world our children will grow up in to be secure, happy and to give them endless opportunities. We recycle as much as we can at school. We teach the children about what we recycle, and why. We are looking at switching to a green tariff for our electricity. We use organic ingredients for our lunches. We believe in investing in our staff through continual professional training. We pay our staff properly.