Where we are now, where we want to be, and our plan to get there
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Our aim
We don’t just get children school ready, we get them ready for life-long learning. We do this by giving them the best early education: high-quality staff interactions based on what children love: play! We explain how we teach and why we do it this way on our Pedagogy page.
Our values
These values come from decades of experience, knowledge, and early childhood expertise. They help us to focus on our aim. They are the foundation of all our planning for the Federation's future.
1: Children have rights to play, learn and be heard
We uphold every child’s rights:
- to active, exploratory play in safe, enriching environments
- to appropriate early child development and education.
Each child’s unique identity is valued and included. Every child is listened to and given a chance to express thoughts, ideas and feelings.
2: Parents/ carers are a child’s first educators
Every family is encouraged to participate in the life of our schools and the services we provide.
3: Teamwork and leadership are essential to delivering quality
Staff and governors work collaboratively to put young children and their rights at the centre of all we do.
We invest in professional development, appraisal and governor training to maintain excellent standards.
4: Children make progress when professionals work together and share information
We work in partnership with each other, with health professionals and with other schools to secure the best practice for every young child.
5: We believe in being ethical, respectful and tolerant
We teach children about healthy and sustainable lifestyles, moral responsibility for our environment, tolerance and respect for each other.
We promote equality in all our practice and inclusive education.
Where are we now?
Knowing where we are is the foundation of successful planning. We use these tools to help us be self-reflective:
Self-evaluation forms
- Every year we update the Self Evaluation Form (SEF) for each school:
- We describe the areas of East London we work in.
- We describe the situations of the people who live here.
- We recognise what we are doing and why we are doing it.
- We name changes we need to make. We notice things we can do differently and better.
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Our latest SEFs were both updated January 2025:
- Church Hill SEF 2024-25
- Low Hall SEF 2024-25
Schools Financial Benchmarking
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The Schools Financial Benchmarking site publishes our top-line financial data:
- Church Hill Nursery School financial benchmarking
- Low Hall Nursery School financial benchmarking
Early Childhood Environment Rating
We use the Early childhood environment rating (ECERS). This helps us to think about the quality of our learning environment. It also helps us to pinpoint opportunities for growth and improvement.
Shared Sustained and Emotional Wellbeing scale
We use Shared sustained thinking and emotional wellbeing (SSTEW scale) to look at our educational practice.
Planning for the future
Our five-year School Development Plan (SDP) answers four big questions:
- What do we want our curriculum to look like in 5 years?
- What specialisms will we offer children and families?
- How do we embed our partnerships with parents, local communities and other organisations?
- How can we make sure FANS is thriving and growing?
Thinking of our Values, for each question, what is success?
- We shall have an evolving curriculum that supports all children in our care.
- All children and families will have the support that they need to flourish.
- Our own practice will be embedded. So will our support of other settings. This will support our local children in many ways.
- FANs will be in a positive financial place so we are future-proof.
How do we get there?
Each year we plan our next steps towards success. This includes our Equalities Objectives. We share these steps in our School Development Plan.
You can read our Equalities Objectives by themselves on the Equality and diversity page.
The steps in our SDP are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). It's easy to see our progress.
