On this page you can find information about our projects. As a researching school, the projects that we work on within nursery with the children are at the heart of our curriculum. We also work on our school development projects with other schools in the UK internationally. Get in touch if you would like to know more about a particular project.

 

Partnership with the Severn Gorge Countryside Trust

Since September 2018 we have enjoyed regular trips to the woods in Coalbrookdale, all thanks to the SGCT. This has been a wonderful opportunity to visit the forest and learn about the ecology of our local area and how to care for it. The children have also brought their own interests and enquiries from their project work, including ideas about birds, worms, ants and mazes to the woods. 

 

Making the parts whole

This three year project involved schools in the UK, Romania, Spain and Sweden as we work together to research transdisciplinary learning. We have developed methodologies for analysing of this type of learning, with resulting benefits for children and educators and evaluation strategies commensurate with the values of this approach.

 

Our research based projects

We believe that long term projects constructed between the children and adults in the setting allow the best possible opportunity for children to develop their critical and creative thinking skills, build empathetic relationships and consider themselves to be life long learners. To see children’s research based projects from previous years please see the “Learning and Teaching” and “Staff and Governors” pages on our website. You can find out about current projects on our Facebook page and from the documentation within nursery.

 

We Think Everywhere

This two year project between settings in Sweden and the UK researched how digital technology could be used in pre-school settings as a tool to make children’s ideas and theories visible. We investigated how technology in many different forms could be seen as a “digital language” to offer possibilities for co-construction of learning. You can read more about the project by visiting the We Think Everywhere website or have a look at the e-book.

 

Study tours

Our school and staff have been influenced over many years by study tours to Italy (Reggio Emilia), Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. These visits continue to keep our minds open to ideas well beyond the current UK educational context and influence our understanding of young children and the role of the educator. We have been privileged to meet many passionate educators from across the world. You can read more here.

 

Working with Master Composters

We are working with two community volunteers to develop our understanding of composting as part of our development as an ecological school. Colin and Louise work in school on a regular basis with children and educators. 

 

Visitors and Exchanges

We welcomed many visitors to our school. We have hosted academics and professors from the UK and around the world  as well as local authority advisors, head teachers, teducators, students and researchers. We are a friendly, open setting and welcome the multiple perspectives that visitors bring.

 

Workshops and Conferences

Our headteacher Louise Lowings has presented at Sightlines conferences in London, shared our work with the Institute of Education in Stockholm, with practitioners and academics at Tokyo University, Los Andes University in Bogata, Erasmus  Brussels University, and in China for the East Asia Regional Council of Schools. Our Deputy Head Helen Torr has run workshops for Early Years practitioners and is a specialist Montessori teacher as well as being an SLE for the local authority. We also run network days at nursery for practitioners who are interested in our practice. We are flexible and can arrange bespoke training dependent on the needs of your practitioners and setting.

 

Sightlines

We work within the UK reference point for Reggio-inspired practice, Sightlines UK. We contribute to publications and conferences hosted by Sightlines. Our nursery welcomes visitors on Sightlines study tours who come to work with us.

 

Research into figure drawing

Our Studio practice provides an ideal opportunity to be an active researcher into children’s drawings. We are particularly interested in how the skills for drawing are linked  to thinking, theory making, communicative intent, writing, storytelling and building friendships. We often observe how children’s skills develop by working with another child and co-constructing meaning together. A teacher on placement, Amaia from Pamplona, worked with us for 9 months and produced this piece of research into children’s drawings.