Nursery Management: Case Study - Active Learning

The Active Learning nursery chain prides itself on having a 'unique curriculum' where children play tennis, practise yoga and even learn to write operas.

There are sensory rooms and an organic menu prepared by onsite chefs, and parents can log on to webcams while they are at work and watch their children playing.

It all adds up to a winning formula, as three of the north London nurseries are currently full, with long waiting lists ranging from 30 to 230 children.

There are six Active Learning nurseries based around London and the south-east, situated in Crouch End, Finchley, West Hampstead, Kingston, Fulham and Dorking. The high level of demand has meant Active Learning is now opening two more settings in the next six months. It is also expanding its flagship nursery in West Hampstead, and is eventually looking to grow to a total of 12 to 15 nurseries. One of these new settings has just opened in Southgate, in north London.

Founder Bill Zuckerman and his team go through a rigorous process when selecting new sites. 'Southgate was chosen because of the strong local demographics and its location, as it is near the tube station,' he says. 'It gave us the opportunity to build a brand new nursery to our own unique specifications.'

The nursery is registered for a total of 99 children from the ages of three months to five years. 'We had a substantial number of places booked and children who were ready to attend from the first month,' adds Mr Zuckerman.

Nursery layouts are designed around specialist activity areas including performing arts, such as music, dance, drama and ballet. Active Learning offers a mix of art techniques and applied art, along with art history from cave art through to modern installation art. Science and discovery also feature, supported by a strong focus on IT using interactive whiteboards, computers and robots.

Webcams have been installed in every room, and through a controlled password system parents can access images of all the rooms at any time during the day, giving them a taste of their children's activities.

What really gives the nurseries a unique selling point is their emphasis on specialist teaching.

'To deliver this curriculum requires skilled practitioners. Active Learning hires teachers to cover each of the specialist areas,' says Mr Zuckerman. 'Each nursery has teachers covering performing arts and music, art, science and discovery, IT and sports. Every nursery has a nursery teacher who is responsible for pulling the overall curriculum together.'

Active Learning specialises in encouraging its children to innovate and create. Last year, all of its threeto five-year-olds were involved in a project where the teachers worked with them to write an opera for children.

'We began by telling them the abridged story of Shakespeare's "Midsummer Nights' Dream",' says Mr Zuckerman. 'We asked the children to re-interpret the story in their own words, or to decide what they think the characters would say, do or feel at any point of the narrative. Our music teachers worked with them to choose suitable music for their libretti -either existing pieces of music, or in many cases the music teachers worked with the children to compose entirely new music.

'Next, the art teachers worked with the children to design scenery and sets, and costumes for the children. The result was a performance on stage with 170 children and over 300 parents, where each nursery performed its own act of the opera.'

He sums things up, 'Whereas some nurseries offer a little taste of some dance or sport or music, our nurseries revolve around it.'