
Wondering
As a teacher of infant aged children, I often longed for more time to gaze and wonder with children on a busy school day. What it would be like to begin afresh, to set the tone, to break the mould?

Changes
It was on one of those perfect autumn days when imperceptible changes are taking place but it still feels like summer. I knew the ‘ingredients’ that would bring about transformation for children, and they could be made right here in this natural space. It was the deciding moment. I took all the experience, instinct and dreams of many years and, like seeds, planted them.

Taken by surprise
It turns out that the seed was in fertile ground. Within a few weeks we were taken by surprise with the number of enquiries coming in, people had told their friends and we were full. We have stayed full more or less all the time since. Spaces come up each year, and somehow they are always filled.

Make every day irresistible
It wasn’t from the mind, it was from the soul. Puddle Lane has sought to bring in a team with the same vision, among them other teachers bringing a range of experience, expertise and buckets of creativity.
I set out our ‘curriculum’. We are here to create space for children and to make every day irresistible. Learning is to stare and question, jump and climb, build and redesign, listen and feel, imagine and reflect.

Satisfied dissatisfaction
You will have heard about thankfulness. It’s not just a new buzz word, it’s old and wise. I am thankful for so much. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction when I think about the children who have been through our doors. We have not simply given them an education but enabled them to understand how to be whole, happy considerate people. It’s the good start that we want to give each child and hope will stay with them all their lives.
So why dissatisfaction?
There is always more. Our curious, intelligent, reflective, close-knit team are always learning too. We still look and wonder.