What the day contains
Early literacy and storytime
Talking, singing, rhyming and being read to. Not flashcards, and not worksheets, and we will explain the difference at the tour if you would like us to.
Everything that matters about early literacy happens before a letter is ever named. It is built out of vocabulary, out of the back-and-forth rhythm of conversation, out of hearing that words are made of sounds, and out of the idea that a book is a good place to be.
None of that involves a flashcard, and all of it is the thing a nursery is genuinely well placed to provide — because it happens in the ordinary business of a nine-hour day rather than in a twenty-minute session.
Talk, which is the largest part
Adults talking with children rather than at them, all day, about things that are actually in front of them. Narrating, naming, asking, and — the part that gets skipped — waiting long enough for a reply from somebody who takes a while to assemble one.
Vocabulary is built in that back-and-forth rather than in a vocabulary lesson. A child who has spent a year having their sounds treated as turns in a conversation arrives at three with something a programme cannot install later.
It is also why group size matters more than it appears to. Twelve children and two adults produces measurably less individual conversation than ten and two, which is one of the more concrete reasons the city cap on group size is worth having.
Being read to, twice a day
In small groups rather than to the whole room, because a story read to fifteen children is a performance and a story read to four is a conversation. Children interrupt, ask, go back a page and want the same book eleven times, and all of that is the point.
Real books that children handle themselves — turning pages, choosing, carrying one around, holding it upside down for a year first. The physical familiarity is part of it.
And where a room has staff who share the children's home language, stories in that language too. Where it does not, we say so rather than implying otherwise.
Sounds, rhyme and the part with genuine evidence
Singing every day, clapping syllables, rhyming, and playing with the sounds inside words. This is phonological awareness, it is the part of pre-reading with the strongest support behind it, and it looks and feels nothing like instruction.
It works because it is oral. A child who can hear that cat and hat end the same way has the thing that makes letters useful later; a child who can name the letter C without that has a party trick.
Which is the whole of the argument on our separate page about not teaching reading before five, and the reason this page is not a softer version of the same thing.
Writing, when it arrives on its own
Mark-making is available all day — paper, chalk, paint, sand, mud — and children use it when they want to. A great many four-year-olds want to write their own name at some point and we help enthusiastically when they do.
What we do not do is set it as a task for a room. A four-year-old asked to form letters before their hand is ready learns that this is a thing they are bad at, which is an expensive lesson to teach for no gain.
We do not teach reading to four-year-olds. We do not teach reading, worksheets or timed drills to children under five, and we will not start because a family asks. The year before kindergarten is best spent on stamina, independence, language and getting on with other children — managing a coat, a lunch, a queue and a toilet, and asking an adult for help. A four-year-old who can do those things and cannot yet read is ready for school. A four-year-old who can read and cannot do those things is not, and no nursery selling you the first list will tell you that.
Included as standard
What is included
Read aloud twice a day
Small groups, real books, interruptions welcome.
Books children handle themselves
Choosing, carrying, turning pages, and holding them upside down for a year first.
Singing, rhyme and syllable play every day
The oral part of pre-reading, which is the part with the strongest evidence behind it.
Stories in home languages
Where a room has the staff for it. Where it does not, we say so plainly.
Adults who wait for a reply
The back-and-forth is where vocabulary is actually built, and it needs somebody to leave a gap.
Mark-making available all day
Paper, chalk, paint, sand and mud, used when a child wants to rather than when an adult sets it.
Help with their own name when they ask
Enthusiastically, and when they ask rather than when the term plan says so.
No flashcards and no worksheets
In any room, at any age, and not on request.
When to make an appointment
Signs this is worth an assessment
- You want your child read to properly rather than performed at.
- You want their home language treated as an asset rather than an obstacle.
- You would rather they loved books at four than named letters at four.
- You want singing and rhyme taken seriously rather than treated as filler.
- You want mark-making available without it being set as a task.
- You want somebody to explain the difference between phonological awareness and flashcards.
Early literacy — what it costs
- Read aloud in small groups at least twice a day, in English and — where a room has the staff for it — in the home language of the children in it.Included
Every rate on this site is published in full on the tuition page, including the ones that make us look expensive. Meals, snacks, nappy changing, settling-in sessions and the whole curriculum are inside the weekly fee — there is no premium tier and no outside provider invoicing you separately for a music class. The two charges that are not in the weekly fee are registration, at $75 a year per family rather than per child, and late collection after 6:15pm at $1 a minute, which goes to the two members of staff who stayed. If your child is three or four, read the 3-K page before you read this one.
Questions we are actually asked
Early literacy — frequently asked
Do you teach the alphabet?
Not as a taught subject to a room. Letters are around — in books, in names, in the ordinary business of the day — and a child reaching for them gets everything we have. The separate page on why we do not teach reading before five makes the full argument.
What is phonological awareness?
Hearing that words are made of sounds — that cat and hat end the same way, that a word has syllables you can clap. It is oral rather than written, it is the part of pre-reading with the strongest evidence behind it, and it looks like singing and rhyming rather than like instruction.
Will you read in my child's home language?
Where the room has staff who share it, yes — and five languages are spoken by staff here. Where a room does not, we will tell you that plainly rather than implying we can. Keeping a home language is not an obstacle to English.
How often are children read to?
At least twice a day, in small groups rather than to the whole room. A story read to fifteen children is a performance; read to four it is a conversation, and the interruptions are the useful part.
My four-year-old wants to write their name. Will you help?
Yes, enthusiastically. A child reaching for writing gets everything we have. What we will not do is set letter formation as a task for a room of four-year-olds regardless of whether their hands are ready.
Related programmes
Families who read this also read
Play-based learning
The approach with the best evidence behind it for children under five, and the one that photographs worst. We chose it anyway.
Included
Dual-language
Five languages are spoken by staff here. Your child keeping their home language is not an obstacle to English, and the evidence is clear about that.
Included
Math & science
Sorting, pouring, weighing, counting out loud and finding out what sinks. Mathematics before anybody calls it that.
Included
Kindergarten readiness
Managing a coat, a lunch, a toilet, a queue and six hours away from home. Reading is not on this list and does not need to be.
IncludedTuesday and Thursday mornings, while the children are here
Come and see the room
A tour here happens during a session, in the room your child would actually be in, at the time of day they would be in it. You meet the person who leads that room rather than only the director, and you see the noise and the mess that are genuinely there. It takes an hour. If your child is three or four we will ask whether you have applied for free 3-K or Pre-K for All before we quote you a rate, because a good many families should not be paying us at all.