Our unique qualities
Daily activities including cooking, yoga, science club, music and movement
A wide range of engaging daily activities encourages children to learn, explore, build confidence, and express themselves through creative, active, and hands-on experiences.
Daily activities – cooking, yoga and more
Extracurricular activities, including cooking, yoga, science club, music and movement, encourage practical skills, and confidence through fun and engaging weekly sessions.
Nutritious meals prepared by our in-house chef
Fresh, balanced menus are home-cooked on-site to promote healthy lifestyles and physical wellbeing.
Maximise your child's potential
Exposure to a vast and stimulating environment has tremendous benefits for your children’s social development, self-esteem and confidence, which fosters good relationships and friendships with their peers.
Children are closely observed in their play so that their interests can be nurtured and developed. Little Owls Day Nursery encourages children to investigate and explore their surroundings, providing activities to enrich this important area of their development. We stimulate every child in a creative and educational way, turning them into inquisitive and confident young individuals, eager to learn and achieve. All our activities reflect the developmental ability of each individual child and are planned to meet the 7 areas of learning. Each child’s progress is tracked regularly and carefully to maximise their potential.
Our core focus for this age group is getting children all set for school. With this mindset, we have developed a very successful school readiness programme tailored to each individual child, which runs for a whole year before the child starts reception.
Our school readiness programme focuses on structured activities aimed at enhancing children’s communication and language, mathematical, listening and attention skills. We incorporate the sound and letters programme into our daily routine, including teaching phonics through the Jolly Phonics programme.
Developing children’s independence and self-confidence is key. We use many creative approaches to achieve this, one of which is teaching children to change into PE kits before commencing physical play activities.
We have close links with local schools. The term before children go to school, teachers from schools are invited to visit the children in a comfortable setting. There is transparency between professionals, and information is shared sensitively.
A wide range of extracurricular activities
Each day in Owls is different and exciting, with an extensive range of extracurricular activities in our outdoor classroom.
Monday - Music Club
At the Music Club on Mondays, children learn all about instrumental sounds, rhythm, tempo and pitch in a fun and interactive way. To enhance this learning further, we use Jo Jingles. Music ignites all areas of children’s development and skills for school readiness, including intellectual, social-emotional, motor, language and overall literacy. It helps their body and mind work together. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practise self-expression. For children and adults, music also helps strengthen memory skills. Musical experiences teach children about emotion, language and abstract concepts in a simple manner, all important to help children prepare for school.
Tuesday - Cosmic Yoga
Cosmic Yoga is an interactive adventure which builds strength, balance and confidence. Physically, it enhances children’s flexibility, coordination and body awareness. In addition, yoga improves children’s concentration and brings in a sense of calmness and relaxation.
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Yoga helps different behaviours in children by making them aware of their emotions and how to keep themselves calm.
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Yoga helps children manage their anxiety
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Yoga boosts children's self-esteem
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Yoga increases children's body awareness and mindfulness
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Yoga enhances children's concentration and memory
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Yoga develops children's strength and flexibility
Wednesday - French Club
Every Wednesday, a qualified French teacher takes pre-school children in small groups to teach them French through games, activities and simple worksheets. At Little Owls, we feel that another language can hugely benefit children’s knowledge and understanding of the world, confidence and self-esteem. Importantly, when children learn multiple languages at a young age, they develop a lifelong love of communicating with others. When young children learn about the structure of other languages, their ability in English is also enhanced.
Why should learning another language start at such a young age?
Studies confirm that learning additional languages increases critical thinking skills, creativity and flexibility of the mind in young children. Pupils who learn a foreign language outscore their non-foreign-language-learning peers in verbal and maths standardised tests. This indicates that learning an additional language is a cognitive activity, not just a linguistic one.
The rubrics of spoken English are practised and enhanced through songs, stories and nursery rhymes and modelled and explored as the children enter their make-believe world of role play.
When French lessons are introduced, without even realising that they are learning a second language. Using the mediums of music and drama, children can be heard spontaneously singing along to French songs. Simply, the younger the learner, the better they are at mimicking new sounds and adopting pronunciation. The brain is open to new sounds and patterns in preadolescence.
Thursday - Science Club
The Science Club was introduced into Owls, which we do every Thursday, before STEM was introduced. Children are naturally drawn to science-based activities. Added to the fact that they appeal to their curiosity and desire to make sense of the world, the finest early years science activities are often hands-on (and sometimes messy) and produce exciting (and sometimes unexpected) results.
As you can see from the pictures, all the children are engaged and focused on the activities set, and many ask questions as to what will happen next. Science activities are so important from such a young age because children learn most effectively when they interact with materials and observe the results. In addition to this, it helps:
Nurture an understanding of cause and effect, trial and error
Develop an understanding of the world
Develop analytical and problem-solving skills
Children engage in playful STEM experiences; they hear and use new words and engage with new concepts. This is why science (STEM) is such an important part of a child’s learning, so they can become curious, ask questions about the world around them and learn from hands-on experiences.
Friday - Cooking Club
By far the most exciting, every Friday, small groups of children enjoy hands-on cooking experiences that inspire creativity and confidence in the kitchen. Activities are designed to teach healthy eating, explore new tastes and textures, and develop practical life skills.
Children take part in age-appropriate cooking tasks that encourage independence, teamwork, and following instructions. They learn about different ingredients, where food comes from, and the importance of balanced nutrition, all while having fun and building a positive relationship with food.
Welcome to Owls, buzzing with energy and excitement!
Designed for 3 to 5-year-olds, the preschool at Little Owls Day Nursery in Danbury and Billericay is split into two lovely, spacious rooms, which are inviting and provide a vast range of equipment designed to teach children through a multi-sensory approach. Our emphasis is on children developing a healthy lifestyle, being independent and taking responsibility.
