Why Choose Us?

As well as providing a warm, welcoming environment, and a caring, nurturing team, during a child’s time at Little Deers, they will experience a broad range of activities and experiences. We encourage children to lead the way in developing and rehearsing skills as they become Creative, Curious, Motivated, and Inspired Critical thinkers and Effective lifelong learners. Scroll down to take a look at how much fun we have...

Whatever the Weather!

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequte clothing", a Finnish Proverb we live by at Little Deers.

This is Britain, the weather is unpredicatable, sometimes cold, sometimes hot, and often wet. We can not expect children to learn about the world around us, the weather, the changing seasons and climate change from behind a window. We therefore give children the opportunities to experience all weathers, to feel the rain in their hair, the sun on their face, to walk on a golden carpet of crisp autumn leaves, we seize the opportunity to catch hail stones, to experience how water has turned to ice over night and allow the children to experience the weather and nature first hand.

Learning Through Play and First Hand Experiences!

There are many varying opinions and theories, on the best way for children to learn and a great deal of evidence to support learning though play. At Little Deers we do not follow one specific theory, we take the best of everything and have fun making childhood memories and creating lifelong learners through Play-Based Learning and Nature. We encourage children to develop a sense of awe and wonder, to use their natural curiosity and to not only ask questions but to question the answers for a deeper understanding.

Exploring Nature

Play is a messy business!

Mud, Glorious Mud!

A child who reads will be an adult who thinks!

Early maths skills come in all shapes and sizes

Taking Maths Outdoors

Early writing skills are not always what you think!

Exploring Light, Dark and Colour

Promoting Oral Hygiene!

Developing Skills for Life!

Life skills range from basic skills like being able to dress and undress themselves, feed themselves, use the toilet and wash their hands independently to learning about the outside world, keeping themselves safe, the environment, road safety and everything in between.

In addition to promoting independence to learn the basic skills required for life, children consistently help with tasks around the nursery. Young children love helping and whilst this can sometimes be frustrating at home, when you’re just trying to get things done, at nursery, it is embedded into the rhythms and flow of the day, children sweep sand from the floor when it is spilt, they mop up spillages as they happen (this also helps them to learn about keeping themselves and others safe), they help cut and prepare the fruit as part of the snack time routine, lay the table for lunch, scrape their plates and wash them up after lunch (don’t worry, they still go through the dishwasher after 🤫). 

Risk Benefit!

Life comes with risk, as we grow we learn to roll, crawl, cruise and walk, we fall, we bump, we learn to get ourselves up. We have to fall down to learn how to pick ourselves up again. As experienced educators, the staff weigh up the risks against the benefits of equipment, resources and activities we provide for the children. For example, a ladder, comes with a risk of falling or potentially bumping someone if they move it from one part of the garden to another. However, this provides an opportunity to learn about their own safety and the safety of others, as they move it around the garden and teamwork if they need to ask a friend for help; it also develops confidence,  a sense of achievement each time they are a step higher than last time, co-ordination, upper body, lower body and core strength, all of which are essential for healthy growth. Therefore, the benefit far out-ways the risk and the children absolutely love climbing, pretenting to be firefighters or pretending to fix the roof of the play house.

We provide a warm, secure and caring environment where children are free to be independent, have fun, explore, experiment, have a go, take risks and learn from their experiences. Sometimes, we ask if that is a safe thing to do, is that a good idea, what would happen if it goes wrong, what would happen if it goes right? 

As children reach different ages they experiment with a variety of things, some good and maybe some not so good, this generation will all experience one of the biggest risks of today, the internet. By asking these questions, children learn to ask themseves the same questions as they grow and learn to manage risks and hopefully make the right decisions in life to keep themselves safe as they grow.

Yoga

Moo Music

Mini Athletics

Popular Visits from the Locals

Being Part of the Community

Having Fun and Making Memories!

"It seems that the approach to each child is completely centred around the individual needs of each child. I know my daughter has not been going to Little Deers for long but in that short time everyone has taken such an interest in her to make sure they understand what she wants and needs and make sure they can look after her properly." (Little Deers Parent)