Hi beautiful souls! We are Gillian and Davie and we are absolutely delighted to be part of NCLH to change the face of ‘education’ for the better! We are 16 years married and live with our two little ones Richie and Ruby, who are 5 and 7 and our furry little ones, including our dog, cat, and hamster, however we would love to rescue more!

We have worked in mainstream education for 16 years now in varying roles including: primary teacher, early years teachers, social care worker and inclusion support worker. We have seen first-hand the damage that mainstream education has done to learners – including our own! This experience has been the driving force in our endeavours to create sustainable change.

We are hugely passionate about supporting learners to reach their full potential, through what they do best – PLAY! We lovingly respect our youngsters as truly empowered beings who are naturally curious and inquisitive about the wonders and magic of life. We aspire to tune into learner’s individual interests, through play partnership, to extend and challenge in the moment with loving guidance, when needed.

We believe that our young ones are intrinsically linked with nature through their heart, mind and soul. Through meaningful connections, a love of all aspects of nature is cultivated through living and experiencing the power and magic it presents.

Young ones learn best when there are opportunities for each individual to explore what motivates them through real life experiences such as from seed to table growing and cooking, woodwork and sewing skills. We fully believe that learning new concepts will take time, which we will support and extend where appropriate for the individual. Practice and struggle are celebrated, perseverance when concepts are tricky will be supported by nurturing adults.

We are delighted to provide a variety of experiences for mums, dads and young learners.

We are very excited to meet and work with you all!

Much love.💖

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Wonders of Nature (age 4-8 yrs):

Monday 4th April 11.00-12.00pm Wonders of Nature part 1

Monday 4th April 2.00-3.00pm Wonders of Nature part 2

Through image provocations we will discuss and share our thoughts of the amazing creations of nature! After our discussion the little ones will go out into nature (garden, park, a walk) to focus on the wonders in their local area. We will meet up later in the day to share our discoveries, reflect upon and share our findings in a way that matters to you. This may be through further discussion, photos, drawings or artifacts you have found.

Story Time (age 3-7 yrs):

Tuesday 5th April 2.00 – 3.00 pm

Would you love to hear a story? Through actively engaging in story time we will develop our listening skills by actively hearing the rhythm, structure and rhyme of the spoken word by becoming part of the story. We will further explore the story through creativity. If possible, ensure you have pens, paper and scissors at hand.

Early Numeracy Skills (adult group for ages 3-6 yrs):

Wednesday 6th April 3.00-4.00 pm

Would you like to learn more about how little ones learn through numeracy and how you could support this at home? We will look at how youngsters learn best, how we grasp numeracy concepts as a young learner and how we apply this in our learning and play. We will cover the stages of numeracy learning, considering practical play solutions to facilitate this.

Loose Parts Play – focus literacy development (adult group for ages 3 – 8 yrs):

Thursday 7th April 1.30 – 2.30 pm

Would you like to learn how to nurture the spirit of enquiry through the use of ‘intelligent materials’ to inspire your learners creativity? Little ones learn as whole beings through their heart, minds and hands in relation to being part of a whole. By exploring our creative side we increase our learning potential, support our wellbeing and enrich our quality of life. By introducing ‘loose parts’ learners are truly free to create and ‘be’. We will explore how we can introduce loose parts and how they can inspire learning.