Business Development - Global village

High House Day Nursery near Bishop's Stortford has made a virtue of being an international 'hub'. The 'oustanding' nursery receives regular visits from academics and education professionals in other countries, and has set up regular exchanges with education professionals in Germany, Greece, and the Instituto Principe Felipe in Madrid. Later this year, it will send two of its staff to a Portugal nursery setting, Colegio S Goncalo, as part of an Erasmus-funded exchange.

The driving force behind this is nursery director and former primary school teacher Vanessa Callan. She says, 'It started in 2009 when a group of 20 professors from Taiwan visited as part of an international tour.

'I was fascinated to see what interested them about my nursery and to learn how things are done differently.

'This year, Greek teachers (from Platon School) came for a week. We spent time going through the lesson plans talking about the Early Years Foundation Stage, observing children and common problems such as the paperwork. We had a similar conversation with teachers in Norway.

'I also believe children need to be immersed in foreign languages. When I had students from Madrid they were speaking to babies in Spanish all day. I get as much out of it as they do.'

In total, 45 visitors from eight countries have come or will arrive before the end of the year. Since 2009, the nursery has been visited by practitioners from Taiwan, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Germany and Chile, with staff from the Catolica di Chile University recommended to visit her by Anglia Ruskin University.

Ms Callan says some practitioners found her on international Reggio network websites, while others simply found her website, and were attracted, she thinks, because of the combination of Reggio, Montessori and forest school practices.

High House Day Nursery was founded by Ms Callan's mother, a former London secondary school teacher, in 1985 at her home. It is now set in two acres of land, a quarter of which is a forest school, on farmland leased from Stansted airport.

The setting has a Reggio-inspired, purpose-built baby unit, and a converted barn for twoto three-year-olds, while children between three and five are housed in a converted farmhouse. There is also an art room, library and room housing Montessori equipment. Children move round the rooms via a timetable.

Ms Callan was one of the first in the country to achieve Early Years Professional Status and has a masters degree in Early Years Professional practice.

Teaching at the nursery can be to a very high level. She says. 'Children haven't got the comprehension of what is difficult, unlike adults. People water things down all the time and there is no need for it.'