We are pleased to introduce you to Miss Hannah Saunders, the dedicated Head of Early Years at Crosfields School. Her commitment to ensuring a transformative educational experience for children makes her a beacon in early childhood education.
What is your philosophy on early childhood education?
‘’Our philosophy on Early Years at Crosfields School is to deliver the richest early educational experiences for our children, ensuring that we are keeping up to date with the evolving changes, latest research, and any recommendations about Early Years Development, in order to offer a high level of quality learning.’’
How do you ensure the well-being and safety of the children in your care?
‘’Children’s well-being and safety is fundamentally one of the most important aspects. In the school day we ensure we have a good level of structure and regular routines; we ensure children have a good understanding about healthy eating, and ensure children are exposed to a balanced diet. Alongside the EYFS statutory guidelines, we also give children the knowledge, understanding and opportunity to be able to grow, develop, and take appropriate risks through physical play.’’
Can you describe your approach to fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment?
‘’In every classroom we create opportunities to ensure every child has a voice. Every teacher is aware of specific needs of each individual child. We understand that children have different learning styles and, through effective planning, we ensure we are meeting every child’s need.’’
What strategies do you use to support and develop your staff?
‘’At Crosfields we pride ourselves on developing everyone as an individual. Each term we ensure staff have regular meetings with their heads of departments, to discuss their own professional development, in which they can create targets, discuss further training as well as having a chance to talk about their own well-being. We provide our staff opportunities to develop their knowledge in areas which are relevant to their current role, but also areas that they feel passionate about.’’
How do you engage with parents and families to create a strong partnership in the child’s early development?
‘’Parents are their child’s first and more enduring educators so, as an Early Years department, we ensure we create strong relationships with parents.
We work together to support parents with their child’s learning by offering parents’ evenings as well as inviting parents into Crosfields for presentations and events throughout the year. We also have an open door policy and parents can talk to their child’s teacher every day. We use an online platform where both parents and teachers can upload important milestones and share a child’s interest, which enables the adults to engage on these topics with the child and offer similar experiences which will help further a child’s development.’’
Visit and discover for yourself all that Crosfields can offer at their next school open event.
