The woodland child

Long before words, children experience the language of light.

Here, even our youngest learners are immersed in thoughtful learning contexts where light invites curiosity, wonder and the joy of discovery.

Simple materials can create rich possibilities for exploration. For educators interested in creating similar invitations, we’ve used Perspex tissue box covers, rechargeable LED tealight candles, a rechargeable spotlight and a handful of old CDs to reflect, refract and transform light in playful and unexpected ways.

Sometimes, it doesn’t take many or expensive resources, just thoughtful ones.

Part of my role as a Pedagogical Coordinator is designing provocations that deepen educators’ thinking and make our pedagogical values visible through materials, space and encounter. Here’s a small window into my thinking as I designed this clay provocation for educators.

It began with a branch that I “rescued” from the side of the road…

I was intrigued by its quiet, vertical stance. We so often ask clay to exist horizontally, or in the acceptable “round ball”. I wondered what new possibilities might emerge if it was invited to stand instead.

I thought about bark. Texture. Memory. I was delighted by the possibility that clay could listen to its surface, holding its traces while light and shadow revealed them in new ways.

I removed the needles and the pine cone. Not to simplify the branch, but to interrupt recognition. To suspend certainty. To invite slower observation before familiar knowledge took over.

Another thread emerged. Clay is earth. Timber is from earth. Two materials of Country already holding a relationship long before I brought them together.

I chose to lift parts of the encounter from the floor on a simple platforms. Not to separate it from the space, but to shift our relationship with it. To invite bodies.

As the encounter evolved, I became interested in the relationships between the materials. How clay might speak to bark. How bark might invite light. How shadow might become another language altogether. Less a collection of materials, and more a dialogue between them. What might they be saying? Am I quiet enough to listen?

Perhaps this is what designing encounters asks of us.
To follow ideas with enough patience that relationships begin to reveal themselves. To trust that one way of seeing can open another. How might we design for conversation rather than consumption?

A wonderful morning spent with Simone from learnplaythrive_ , talking (and filming) all things environments, intentionality and curation.

These conversations matter. They invite us to look beyond beautiful spaces and instead ask what our environments communicate about our values, our image of the child and the possibilities we hope children encounter each day.

I’m looking forward to sharing this conversation with you soon.

I love designing a beautiful hallways moment. Hallways are often thought of as places we just pass through. But at our newest service Chisholm Early Education, Care & Preschool It tells children and families that this place has been thoughtfully prepared for them.

Miles has just started to really find joy in representational drawing. He story tells as he creates and delights in the details. As an educator and mum this is so exciting, we can’t wait to see what he creates .

We have two beautiful Tenidiscopes at our service, and they continue to invite curiosity with every encounter.

Reflection changes perspective. Light reveals new questions. Mirrors invite children to test theories, solve problems and build hypotheses through play.

A beautiful reminder that sometimes the question is more valuable than the answer, and that joy is found in the exploration.

Light is a fascinating and complex language to explore and understand.

Our preschool studio at our new service Clare Comedoy is beginning to come together, and this light space already feels like an irresistible invitation to wonder, experiment and ask new questions.

How does light move? What changes when we shift our perspective? What possibilities emerge when children are given time, space and beautiful materials to explore?

We can’t wait to see where their thinking takes us.

What does clay know about hope?

A question that sat at the centre of our Educational Leader Unpacking Day this week.

Together we explored clay as a material that remembers, invites revisiting and welcomes transformation.

We wondered about trust.
About relationship.
About becoming.

And whether hope might live in unfinished things.

A beautiful conversation that feels like it has only just begun.