HUNSDON HOUSE GARDEN SCHOOL

International Nursery School since 1922

We are a long-established Nursery School tucked away in the heart of Headington, Oxford, offering a loving start to the joy of learning for 2 to 5 year olds. The Hunsdon House family ethos is rooted in its history, opening its doors in 1922 in a family home. It was praised by the Education Minister for its innovative use of both indoor and outdoor learning spaces - the first true ‘Garden School’ of its kind. To this day, the nursery offers each child a nurturing haven of love and guidance as they navigate the world of friendships, nature and education. We have been an international Nursery School from the beginning (we received the children of African kings in the 1960s.) Children hear different languages and soon learn to speak English fluently alongside their native language.

We limit our numbers each day to allow each child individual attention and employ caring, qualified and experienced staff with a passion for seeing each child develop their full God-given potential.

We are a nursery upholding Christian values, and welcome children and families of all faiths or none.

 

JOYFUL

Our children experience a traditional kindergarten, enjoying our natural toys which reflect the simple joys of daily life.

CoLOURFUL

We surround our children with light and colour at every opportunity.

Charlotte's cone1.jpg

NATURAL

Our children are encouraged in their innate love for the natural world, exploring our forest gardens all year round.

Our gardens are a wonderful resource

 

We often use our garden for inspiration when planning our seasonal curriculum inspired by Froebel, Montessori and Steiner.

Froebel inspired children to grow up close to God, close to nature and with hand-on materials. Montessori’s discoveries resulted in a very pragmatic and scientific approach leading to sensorial, mathematical and practical life activities. Steiner’s method encompasses creativity through colour, dance and music.

Children have a deep need to be connected to the natural environment. When playing freely outdoors, they experience wonder and fascination with the changing colours of the leaves, the seeds in a poppy head and the many flowers and insects in the garden.

On warm summer days, children like to eat their snack or lunch peacefully under the trees before running off to explore!

The children love to spot the birds building their nests and we try to guess what they might be saying to one another up in the trees.

We encourage wild flowers and wildlife as well as new planting each year.

 

The children are eager to help care for their garden!

Nurturing the senses…

Children experience and connect with their world primarily through their senses before they begin to use rational thought. The quality of these experiences is crucial to brain development and refinement. Sensory/messy play increases focus and attention span, encourages curiosity, creativity and problem-solving and builds strong neural pathways as well as strengthening muscles and fine motor skills.

What the hand does, the mind remembers.

Whether tasting home made apple juice or making bread together, feeling the textures of seashells, nuts or grains, or mixing and stirring mud pies, children form new brain connections through their hands-on experiences.

Children naturally learn life skills through observation and their own sensory experience.

We bake bread every Friday.

Breadmaking session

A visiting instrument maker guides the children to cut maple percussion sticks

A visiting instrument maker guides the children to cut maple percussion sticks

We use a whole sheep's fleece as a teaching resource to show the children how to wash, dye and weave with wool. Looms are made from willow branches

We use a whole sheep's fleece as a teaching resource to show the children how to wash, dye and weave with wool. Looms are made from willow branches

The children love to tend their vegetables and watch them grow

The children love to tend their vegetables and watch them grow

Learning how to prepare apple rings for a recipe

Learning how to prepare apple rings for a recipe

Self Directed Play

Free play may look purposeless, but play is a child's work! It is their way of gaining an understanding of the world around them. In directing their own activity, they are working through new ideas, practising all kinds of skills and building up their attention span. They replay previous experiences so as to cement their comprehension. Play provide children with an intuitive way of meeting challenges and solving problems. Each unique child will have their own timetable and agenda at different stages of their development.

Intrinsic Motivation

We may consider it 'our duty' to fill our child’s time with purposeful adult-directed learning activities. However, a child’s acute senses, curiosity, imagination and many other innate gifts develop from birth onwards. If we present certain types of materials to a young child they can develop their own intrinsic (inner) motivation to learn. And this investigative play takes the child into a focused state of concentration which stretches attention span. This is followed by increased cognitive development and educational progress.

Learning from Children

Observing the children closely helps us plan for more stimulating play opportunities following their interests. Their feedback informs our curriculum and the kinds of materials we offer.

This little girl is pretending the collection of magnet people is a yoga class and she is the teacher. At first she instructs the class "Don't touch anybody", but then she finds that because of the nature of magnetism, the unruly class keeps finding a way to stick together. She then finds a solution: "Everybody touch everybody"! But one of the magnets is repelling and refuses to touch. Patiently she suggests, "Maybe you need some more space...okay..."

We use feedback like this to develop several new activities to teach about magnetism.

These children are exploring a set of simple, brightly coloured cups, bowls and spoons which are paired with a variety of glass pebbles and shapes to encourage open-ended free play. This helps the learning of colours, creative mixing and recipe making. Transient art, counting, sorting and other discoveries often follow.

If we give a child access to simple playthings such as pebbles, sand and sticks, he will bring them alive with his imagination. I have watched a pine cone be transformed into a bottle of medicine, a fairy creature, a hedgehog or a doctor's instrument!

This happy group of friends are making sand cake recipes together and finding out if their delicious-looking creations are actually edible! Another little girl is gathering a huge bunch of beautiful Autumn leaves.

CREATIVE Development

Children’s natural creativity helps them process the events of their everyday lives in ways that make sense to them. They often choose their own props or use very simple objects brought alive by imagination.

Imagination is a vital part of a child's cognitive development. A healthy and vibrant imagination leads to greater resourcefulness, resilience, mental agility, robust mental health and creative problem-solving skills in later life.

Using open ended natural 'loose parts' this boy is creating a cosy home and a meal for woodland animals.

This boy is using simple blocks, nuts and cones to create a feeding game for hungry animals.

These two close friends have set up home together and are preparing a meal.

These two close friends have set up home together and are preparing a meal.

These children are recreating a lively church service, with one singing 'Hallelujah!' and the other playing the organ.

These children are recreating a lively church service, with one singing 'Hallelujah!' and the other playing the organ.

This little girl is creating a story about a beautiful butterfly. She demonstrates how gently the butterfly is touching a flower.

This little girl is creating a story about a beautiful butterfly. She demonstrates how gently the butterfly is touching a flower.

These girls have made a train out of hoops and are offering passengers a ride into the forest.

Heuristic Play

In order to further enrich the children's imagination development, our visiting Creative Play Specialist Cathy provides exciting regular heuristic (creative discovery) play sessions, using a wide variety of handmade toys and natural materials. This kind of play is led by the child in each moment and focused on the process, not the end result.

If these kinds of ideas interest you, Cathy is always happy to advise and send links. Her Instagram account is full of play ideas for your children.

During one session the children decided to create a Rainbow Shop, using all the sparkly treasures! They had so much fun arranging the goodies in colour matching order, deciding on prices, playing the roles of shopkeeper and customers, counting out ‘coins’ (little mirror discs) and giving change. They didn’t even notice how much learning was going on!

We have posted all the videos of this session and others on our Instagram page!

Arts and Crafts

And of course we also give children daily opportunities to express themselves artistically through painting, modelling and building and learn new creative skills such as pastels, weaving, watercolour, woodwork and collage.

We encourage the children to be gentle....

 

 Our nurturing atmosphere encourages the children to care and respect for others. Close friendships develop and flourish, regardless of differences in ethnicity, culture or language, which to a small child are irrelevant. A hand to hold, a companion to explore with, a friendly smile, are all that's needed.

 

Hunsdon House “Golden Rules":

We try to be caring, helpful and gentle

We speak kindly and listen

We walk indoors, outdoors we can run

We do not harm other children

We care for all our wonderful toys and equipment

 

 

Friendships start from playing alongside others, gradually noticing what they are doing....and wanting to do the same...

...sharing an activity together or making each other laugh...       

...and then learning to cooperate and help each other...

...eventually a close bond develops, where children care about and comfort each other and show spontaneous affection, delighting in each other’s company.

"I shelter my friend from the rain"

Through sharing fun and laughter together, this little Austrian girl (who had become fluent in English here) helped teach her younger Polish friend the words.

Close, affectionate and often long-lasting friendships develop and flourish in this gentle, loving atmosphere.

 Children learn to love books and language through being read to and having free access to our stimulating library at all times. Spontaneous storytelling sessions also provide enjoyable learning opportunities. We have an additional daily story and literacy games and songs at circle time. Letter recognition starts with each child’s name on a card laid out on our registration table for them to find. Pencil skills are developed through fine motor skills activities, eventually leading to colouring, card making and word formation with inviting high-pigment art pencils.