We are a small early childhood setting situation on Coldharbour lane, Harpenden.

We provide education and care for a maximum of 30 children aged 12 months – 5 years old.

Our setting

Our Classrooms are inviting, calm and organised around the unique play and care needs of the children who attend each day. Classrooms change regularly following the interests of the children. Resources are beautiful, open-ended, natural, reusable, recycled, and developmentally appropriate. This supports the cultivation of a love of active learning through exploration, discovery and creative thinking in every child.

Hands on Learning

Children experience hands-on, active learning by participating in a variety of purposeful activities and experiences. We guide children on self-directed and adult-led learning experiences that engage all five of their senses during first-hand experiences.

The Wildlife Garden

We have a small plot of land on site. It’s our project biodiversity garden. Our intention is to bring a pocket more of biodiversity to the urbanised area and create a natural play setting outdoors for attending children. Children can experience stewardship helping it to thrive and grow, improving local wildlife conservation, and protecting the natural world balanced with lots of opportunities for play. Through doing so, the children develop a sense of place here and the agency of the garden with first-hand experiences that provide them with life skills to champion their own health and well-being, combat the climate crisis, and experience an eco-friendly lifestyle.

“The child should experience nature ‘in all its aspects –
form, energy, substance, sound and colour.” – Friedrich Froebel

Out and about in the community

We enjoy daily walks and regular adventures to trails, a natural ancient heath land, agricultural land, the river Lea and woodlands. All within 1 mile of the setting. This provides endless opportunities to learn through exploration and discovery in natural ways whilst developing an understanding about life beyond the garden and understanding for greater community. We strive to uphold an approach for each child to benefit from Early Childhood in Harmony with Nature.

“To learn a thing in life and through doing is much more developing, cultivating, and strengthening than to learn it merely through the verbal communication of ideas.”

Friedrich Froebel

A typical day for a child at Cosmos Nursery and Kindergarten:

The Burrow 12 months – 2 years : Are nurtured within a small group of children each day, to develop strong bonds with their key person, become confident explorers who seek out play experiences, in the cosiness of the playroom or in the wonders of the world beyond. Our high adult to child ratios and nurturing, knowledgeable practice ensure babies feel safe , secure and delight in explorative sensory focused play through our loving whole-child approach.

The Lodge 2-3 years: We facilitate several hours of outdoor play each day as well as exciting opportunities to experience our community such as visiting the park, woodland and nature reserves. We also enjoy music and greater opportunities for movement to support toddling children to develop body confidence and spatial awareness, and their communication and language skills. This supports our children to develop holistically whilst connecting with nature and life beyond their family as they begin to make sense of the world, their bodies and develop a sense of self. Children continue to be guided by knowledgeable, nurturing adults to develop new skills and creatively respond to their experiences based on their own interests and thinking.

The Warren 3-5 year olds: We provide opportunities for children to consolidate their learning by linking their outdoor experiences with an indoor environment that cultivates creativity is the key to promoting self-motivated learners, who think for themselves and develop new ideas and problem-solving skills they can apply to a variety of experiences in education and life.
We provide experiences requiring concentration and collaboration to guide our preschool-aged children to follow their unique interests and natural trajectory of cognitive development, think creatively, and critically about their play. Children partake in a variety of creative projects that promote all areas of learning across the EYFS including block play, clay modelling, weaving, mark making, cookery, crafting, storytelling, role play, and much more.

“It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.”

David Woods Winnicott

Teaching:

We have high expectations of what children are capable of achieving. We support each child individually to become a motivated, free-thinking, creative learner, through a well-planned, unhurried child-centred environment. We use child-led interactions, observations, support, and extending learning practices to ensure we know our children and families exceptionally well. This enables us to make sound judgments to support the child’s individual needs. When the time comes, children are ready for their next steps in the world and education.

We predominately plan ‘in the moment’, using a High scope approach to ensure we are providing the most enriching first-hand experiences, for each child to thrive in our homely enriching environment. For children 3-5 years old, our skilled practitioners facilitate short bursts of adult-led, focused learning to support children’s emergent mathematics, and literacy skills as well as mindfulness practices. There is always a play-centric approach to adult-led educational activities.

We pride ourselves on providing the highest standard and quality early years education and care, an innovative approach to whole child, nature inspired pedagogy that is underpinned by Froebelian Principles.

For more information on our Froebelian approach to early childhood education click here