Our mission

Our purpose is to help more children access genuinely high-quality early years education – by investing in nurseries that have a positive impact on children, staff and communities, and helping them grow that impact.

1. Why early years education matters

We believe early years education and care plays a critical role in society. Beyond simply providing childcare for working parents, we see it as a powerful opportunity to improve developmental outcomes for children in the long term.

Why? Because the first five years of life shape a child’s development more than any other stage. During this time, the brain is forming rapidly, and early experiences have a “life-long impact on our ability to learn, cope with adversity, be healthy, build strong relationships, and thrive throughout our lives” (UNICEF). 

That’s why the quality of early years education really matters. The UK government’s longitudinal Study of Early Education and Development (SEED) has demonstrated that children who attend higher-quality early years provision show stronger cognitive and social development by age four – with significant benefits continuing into later schooling.

This matters even more when we think about how to address inequalities. As highlighted by the Sutton Trust, high-quality early education is one of the most effective ways to narrow the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. 

Children in the most disadvantaged 20% bracket in the SEED study, for example, saw a 4.5% increase in the odds of meeting expected standards in reading, writing and maths at KS2 from attending even one more hour of formal childcare during their early years – that’s almost twice as large an impact as for their peers. 

2. Why staff are so important for quality

But what do we really mean by quality? Research such as the SEED study and the Nuffield Foundation have looked at the impact of a number of structural and process factors on outcomes for children – including staff-child ratios, level of staff qualifications, and quality of the curriculum.

But at its core, it really comes down to this: the quality of the adult-child interactions. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) explains this as the ability of practitioners to share a child’s attention, respond to their cues, expand on what they are communicating, and have a back-and-forth conversation.

Making children feel safe, and fostering their communication and language skills through high quality interactions, are two of the most critical building blocks of learning outlined by the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) – fundamental for then layering on top specific skills like literacy and maths.

That’s why the quality of staff matters above all else. The best outcomes for children come from teams that are motivated, supported, and in it for the long run. 

And that’s why we focus on investing in training and leadership, protecting the professional autonomy of staff, and fostering stable, supportive working environments that care for staff as a family.

3. Why we care about communities

We don’t believe in ‘one size fits all’, or a ‘standard operating model’ that gets imposed on each individual nursery. 

Appreciating local context matters – from building strong partnerships with parents and adapting sessions to suit local parents’ work patterns, to celebrating the diversity of children’s home languages and cultural contexts.

Only then can children feel safe, included, and able to learn and grow at their best. 

But beyond that, nurseries also have a role to play in creating positive impact for their local communities. They can foster inclusion and understanding of diversity; they can provide a welcoming and supportive space for parents; they can teach children about the environment, and create a sense of civic responsibility. 

In this way, we believe nurseries not only serve their local communities – they can also be a force for good within them.