As the light from the south Cornish coastline shines through the glass portholes at Naturally Learning’s Falmouth setting, a group of under-threes are playing with sand, seaweed and sponges in the atelier. The seaweed, churned up by storms and spread like a carpet over the beach, has been foraged by the children and brought back to the setting for sensory exploration.
‘It’s part of our seasonal curriculum where we encourage children to explore the beauty of the changing seasons at the beach,’ explains operations director Tom Richardson. ‘Hands-on experiences, where they observe changes in the weather, different types of leaves or seashells and different wildlife behaviour, helps foster an early appreciation for the natural world,’ he adds.
Elements from the beach can be seen throughout the setting. There is a sensory tray rockpool with seaweed, shells and pebbles and stainless-steel utensils for scooping and pouring. A walk-in sandpit made from wooden sleepers and fixings sits directly on the floor.
‘Children often get down to their nappies and clamber into the seaweed bath, seeking out a whole-body sensory experience,’ explains pedagogical lead Sarah Hood, responsible for curating the indoor learning environments and providing playful provocations to learn. ‘UK seaweed is edible, which makes it a great, sensory-rich, play-safe resource,’ adds Tom, who is an expert on foraging and oversees the group’s outdoor learning.
Children explore natural textures using shells and dried seaweed to make imprints in the clay. Natural artwork is tastefully hung on hessian string, punctuated with sprigs of lavender and dried foliage.
‘Our creative art and design activities focus on the process over the product,’ explains Tom. ‘We do a lot of transient art on the beach and in the forest, using natural and recycled materials to create portraits or sculptures with rock towers.’
CALMING THE SENSES
It’s not just the sound of ocean in the distance that calms the senses of children attending this setting. The indoor space is organised and clutter-free. Warm hues of mustard and green – the group’s brand colours – can be found in textured cushions and rugs.
Resources are expertly selected for their open-ended nature, educational value and sensory input, often picked up from scrap stores, charity shops or crafted by staff members.
Sturdy rustic shelving, made from repurposed scaffolding, aligns the walls. Resources are purposefully, but sparsely, placed on top – crayons separated into colours in glass pots; pom-poms in wicker baskets; large wooden skittles; blocks; wooden train sets; tea pots; and mirror trays for exploration of natural resources.
High-quality, large-format picturebooks such as Ocean by Helene Druvert are used to extend children’s learning and give them a deeper understanding of the changing tides and what lies at the bottom of the sea.
‘Children need to be comfortable, secure and feel safe indoors and out before any learning is introduced,’ Sarah explains. ‘Indoors, this involves creating a calm, enabling environment where children are familiar with the resources on offer and can self-select without feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated with too much choice or colour.’
Mandy Richardson, owner and managing director of the family business, says there are minimal resources but they are ‘plentiful in supply’.
‘We don’t want children fighting over teapots in the mud kitchen, so we have a large supply of stainless steel teapots, gravy jugs and serving spoons.
‘It’s also about showing children respect by giving them beautiful spaces and resources, and teaching them how to look after them,’ she explains [see Nursery Chains, where she talks about quality across the nursery group].
OLDER KIDS AND OUTDOORS
Children attend beach school or take part in Forest School sessions at the nursery group’s shared private woodlands on a daily basis. For the pre-schoolers, who are outdoors most of the day, there are three rooms on the lower ground floor dedicated to what Sarah describes as ‘the project space’.
‘They come indoors for group work and extended learning, and we help prepare them for school in a playful way, in line with our ethos,’ she says.
A large, freestanding, wood-encased Touch Table displaying YouTube images of coastal foraging is positioned next to a table used to categorise natural treasures that children bring back from the beach. Numbered pebbles and mirrored numerals are placed on grids where children can count and sort the shells, rocks and interesting pieces of sea bark they find. There are print-outs of different stones and local reference books with real representations of flora and fauna.
The Touch Table is used solely for ‘referencing and as an educational prompt’, Tom says. ‘It’s our gateway into STEM. It comes with a microscope which projects x4000 on the screen. We did a daffodil project in the spring where the children could see the pollen and cellular breakdown of the petals.’
The outdoor space is a converted carpark. There is an allotment with repurposed bath tubs where children grow fruits and vegetables, such as courgettes on the vine, which are taken to the kitchen to be used in soups and made into fritters. At the firepit, children sit on logs and have camp fires and cook food or warm up their lunch, which is eaten outside every day under a canopy.
BEACH SCHOOL
Down on the beach a group of pre-school children are confidently clambering over rocks and uneven terrain in their wellies searching for sea life in rock pools. They point out the names of wildlife that they are familiar with: crabs, shrimp, limpets, snails and sea anemones. And they take their tote bags over to a patch of sand named ‘the treasure circle’.
Each child lays out the treasures they have collected: interesting stones; cuttlefish bones that can be used for mark-making and a selection of seaweed in varied shapes and sizes. Children use a reference book to match up the foraged seaweed with pictures. They discover rubbery stands of kelp seaweed, which smells salty; dulse seaweed; serrated wrack; bubble rack and sugar kelp. Irish moss, they learn, is an ingredient in toothpaste.
The awe and wonder is clear to see. They persist in matching up the different types of seaweed with the pictures, looking closely at the intricate patterns and examining the seaweed hands-on.
One little boy uses the trunk of a firm, rubbery piece of a seaweed as a walking stick. He says, ‘The treasure belongs to the beach.’
‘We only take back seaweed, rocks and shells to the setting, but not living things,’ Tom explains. ‘It’s about getting the balance right. For us, nature connection is really important, and sustainability is at the heart. We do a two-minute beach clean after every session.’
Sometimes beach school sessions involve studying and learning in depth. Other times, children throw rocks, play run-away-wave, make stone sculptures or create transient art pieces in the sand.
‘Beach school ticks every aspect of the EYFS. It’s the best playground, full of learning opportunities. Sometimes we come with a purpose, sometimes without. Nowhere else can children spend their time throwing something of real consequence as hard as they can. There’s so much value in the simple things. And sometimes, it’s enough to just be,’ Tom adds.
- Naturally Learning was named Nursery Group of the Year in the 2023 Nursery World Awards.
Naturally Learning Falmouth
- Best investment:Community Playthings Outlast Cascade, £1,695; fully weatherproof, great for outdoor wet and messy play: https://bit.ly/3SdLk1K
- Best medium-priced resource:Rainbow Blocks, £28.79, from TickIt; create visually stunning effects that captivate children’s imagination: https://bit.ly/3tMBDxF
- Best cheap buy: Natural resources from the beach and charity shop finds
- Investigate with: Interactive screens from Touch-Table: https://bit.ly/4aTxrgc; The Essential Guide to Rockpooling by Julie Hatcher and Steve Truehella: https://bit.ly/3SvozGo; Ocean by Helene Druvert and Emmanuelle Grundmann: https://bit.ly/41Qc5fR; Tengja from Fafunia: https://bit.ly/3RL2QbW
- Further information: www.naturallylearning.co.uk/falmouth; ‘All about… beach schools’ by Annette Rawstrone, Nursery World, July 2023
