Curriculum - Clifton Children’s House

At Clifton Children’s House we aim to inspire and engage the young children’s minds, while laying a solid foundation for school and life-long learning.

Activities of Everyday Living
These are activities that are vital to the child’s development as they help the child master the skills to become independent. They include pouring, polishing, threading, using buttons, cleaning etc, and while developing muscular coordination, the child also attains increasing levels of concentration.

Sensorial Activities
Young children use their senses to learn, and through these materials the child is provided with concrete experiences to help organise the impressions received from his senses; for example, relating to size, colour, texture, taste, sound. Through comparing, classifying and grading objects the child is helped to understand his/her surroundings.

Numeracy and Arithmetic
Children gain an understanding of concepts such as number, place value, and to calculate through using concrete and specially graded materials. These move the child gradually from the simple to the more complex, and lay a solid foundation for future mathematical learning.

Literacy
Children are preparing to read and write in a Montessori environment without realising it, through acquiring the sub-skills in a natural, enjoyable way. We use specialised materials that make learning to read and write fun, and a synthetic phonics approach, which has now been proved to be the most effective way to learn to read.

Understanding the World
Children are fascinated by the world around them and we encourage this interest by helping them to make sense of the world. We are able to support children’s interests in animals, plants, the world, space, science, pre-history etc. through our Montessori hands-on approach.

Creative
Children are encouraged to be creative across the curriculum. We have an Art room where children will find tools and materials necessary to develop the skills so they can be truly individual in their creativity. Opportunities for music and singing are offered daily, and children are free to develop their imaginary play, often with friends. We also offer cooking, woodwork, gardening and planting.

As well as the Montessori ethos and curriculum, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, which is mandatory for all Ofsted registered childcare providers.

What our Parents say

The teachers pay incredibly close attention to what interests individual children, and tailor activities accordingly. The support we have received from CCH has been wonderful: from helping our son through a difficult transition, to regular parent seminars on topics like Montessori in the home and fostering numeracy skills, and regular updates on our son’s progress both verbally and via the Blossom app. Our son has thrived at CCH because of the wonderful, expert staff who have created a calm, rich, and engaging educational environment in which the children are celebrated and nurtured as they learn.

Our son is so happy at Clifton Children’s House and we have been delighted with the way the team have welcomed and looked after him since day one. We love that they all know him as an individual and take the time to understand how he thinks and what he is interested in, it is very reassuring as a parent to see such care being taken over each child. We love the ethos and atmosphere, and the friendly smiles from all the team, and we have been really grateful for the team’s expertise about toddler behaviour and how best to support our child through the last few months.

H loves his time at Montessori; it is a wonderful, nurturing environment in which he thrives. He is the fourth of our children to have been through the Clifton Children’s House and we really believe it provides the best start to their education. Furthermore they have all been extremely happy at Montessori and come home literally singing. Years later they still have friendships from these formative years. We wouldn’t hesitate to, and often do, recommend it.

We feel very lucky to have our son attending Clifton Children’s House. We really feel the Montessori approach to learning/teaching is excellent and we are only sad that in our country it doesn’t continue past the age of 5. At this school Mary Lazo seems to have instilled an incredible ethos into the setting that has wonderfully trickled down to all the staff; the care and attention I feel our child (and am sure every child) receives, and the patience with which it is given, is unrivalled and our son comes home every day looking bright eyed and happy. The highest praise, I suppose, is that we will be sending our younger son here too despite moving slightly further away; the extra journey time will be well worth it!

Clifton Children’s House is the perfect nurturing environment for our daughter, despite tricky circumstances during the Covid 19 pandemic she has felt safe and flourished in confidence, she has made wonderful friendships with other children and teachers alike. Her teachers are respectful, thoughtful and kind and it is easy to see this reflected by all the children at Montessori, I wholeheartedly recommend Clifton Children’s House.

The Clifton Children’s House is the most wonderful and nurturing pre-school setting. The staff are all incredibly kind, gentle and supportive and really get to know each individual child and family. My son spent two very happy years here and they helped him grow in confidence enormously. Some of his favourite things at Montessori were the ‘Woodland Montessori’ sessions, getting to do woodwork and spending lots of time in the wonderful garden.
My daughter has recently started and is enjoying every minute of her time here. I cannot praise what they do highly enough!

Both our children have gone to CCH. It is such a warm, caring, stimulating and gentle environment, which nourishes and encourages children’s natural curiosity for the world. The teachers are fantastic and make it a priority to get to know and interact with each child on the child’s individual level. Our children have come back with so many positive stories about their days at CCH, and all the different activities they have engaged in. I love the ways in which so many aspects of the world are talked about and brought together at CCH, including arts and crafts, relationship building, cultural awareness and inclusivity (to name just a few). It is also great that the children are encouraged to spend time outdoors, and that CCH has such a fun outdoor space. In our experience, CCH has provided the best possible foundation for our children.