We believe children search for the meaning in life in their explorations and play. Our environment is crafted around children's interests, skill, and seasonal conditions. Children have access to a wide variety of open-ended natural materials and household objects inviting children to play and engage with purpose and concentration, individually or alongside others to discover, explore, experiment and problem solve,  Knowing children will discover the world in their own unique way.   

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Teachers spend time with each child during care routines in a calm and interactive manner to build bonds of friendship and trust.  Uninterrupted play allows children to initiate their own learning while teachers unobtrusively support them.  Teachers encourage small groups of children to play together to develop co-operative skills.  Children are encouraged and supported to solve their own conflicts, to develop language to express and make sense of their own feelings and ideas and to begin to understand and develop communication with others be it verbal or non-verbal.

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The Magda Gerber, RIE & Reggio Emilia influences our approach to respectful care.  This approach carries expectations about some patterns of caring that we value openly – we don’t carry children to get them to sleep, we don’t use high chairs or prop children who can’t do this by themselves, we place children to explore on the floor, and we encourage children to learn to feed themselves. If you have developed different patterns at home, we will work together to find ways in common at Magic Garden that can be supported by our teacher to child ratio which is close to 1:3.