Our approach
Reggio-inspired, in plain words
We borrow habits from the preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy and describe the way we work. We are not a Reggio Emilia school.
Children here are treated as capable. The room is set up to invite them in, the studio is full of real materials, and the teachers listen first and plan second. What a teacher hears on Monday shapes what is on the shelf on Wednesday.
A project
How a project runs
A project starts from something the children keep returning to. It can last a few days or a few weeks.
- 01
Step 1: A question appears
A teacher notices what the children keep asking about: shadows, a snail in the yard, how a bridge stands up.
- 02
Step 2: Materials go out
The studio teacher puts out clay, paper, wire or light, and the children try their own answers.
- 03
Step 3: The teachers write it down
Photographs and the children's own words go onto a panel on the wall, with no child's name on it.
- 04
Step 4: The children come back to it
The panel lets children revisit what they did and ask the next question. Some projects end, and some turn into others.
What you will see
Three things that set a morning apart
A studio, not a craft table
Real clay, real wire, paint that is mixed rather than poured. The studio teacher works beside the children rather than in front of them.
Walls that remember
Documentation panels show how a project grew, in photographs and in what the children said.
A yard that is part of the room
Children carry the day's questions outside, and bring sticks, stones and leaves back in.
Visit
Come to the studio on a Tuesday or Thursday morning
A tour takes about 45 minutes. You see the studio, the room and the yard on a real morning, and we answer whatever you ask.