Our Values & Principles

The early years are the basis for long term well-being and lifelong learning, so what adults intend for young children matters. At Whitnash Nursery School we make explicit the principles underpinning the practice and provision which affirm early childhood as an important stage in its own right and children as active agents in their own learning.

Our Values and Beliefs:

The nature of learning is:

Every child is unique and follows their own developmental pathway
Education as growth through investigation and exploration rather than transmission
Based in relationships and the importance of exchange for shaping ideas and knowledge
The making of connections

Social co-construction of understanding:

Young children experience, interact and makes sense of the world around them in many different ways; there is no one “right” way of thinking, learning or behaving. Research helps us to understand the many aspects that contribute to learning and the processes through which young children gain understanding and knowledge.

We also know that from birth to the age of 5 children’s brains are developing more rapidly than at any other point in their life, making millions of connections per second. Children are born with a predisposition to learn, but the way in which this development happens is key to their learning dispositions for life. The role of the adult is key to supporting the development of brain architecture and responding to and noticing children’s learning behaviours and skills. Adults may also be key to recognising children who are on divergent pathways.

Kenilworth and Whitnash Nursery schools celebrate and value each child’s uniqueness and are inclusive schools that seek to be the ‘right place at the right time’ for every child.

Warwickshire County Council’s SEND Local Offer

Principles of early childhood education:

The task of education is to support and encourage children’s exploration and understanding of the world around them, themselves and others. Skills are acquired and grow to support children in their encounters and enquiries and are tools that allow children to make links, test and consider and give meaning to their experiences building their knowledge and understanding.

As a School we identified we want our children to….

…Encounter the environment, each other, experiences, materials and adults and in doing so gain. Educators observe and notice this and research how this may then be extended and what further learning it may support.

…be involved in a creative process of Exchange, children are born sociable learners and it is our role to develop this and support them to become flexible to ideas around them and understand where knowledge maybe and how to find it, to adapt their hypothesis and ideas in response to what they discover and what is shared with them. We recognise the vital role of the adult in co-construction of learning.

…Enquire to make sense and give meaning to the world and materials around them, be interested and develop confidence to Communicate, ask questions, share knowledge, test hypothesis and listen respectfully to the ideas of others, reshaping their thoughts and explorations in response.

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'Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire’ - William Butler Yeat