{"id":21872,"date":"2022-11-02T17:42:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T17:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/?page_id=21872"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:07:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:07:02","slug":"our-learning-environments","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/our-curriculum\/our-learning-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Learning Environments"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Cart Mill Family Centre we understand how important it is for children to learn through play. We recognise the importance of our children being able to learn through play and lead their own learning. Our educators have created learning environments that offer a wide range of quality experiences which provide choice and challenge. Our centre is free flow, allowing children to choose the learning environment that promotes their creativity and curiosity. We understand that each child is unique and educators appreciate this, working collaboratively with each child to shape both the child’s learning and learning environment. Our learning environments use a variety of open ended materials, which encourages your child to use their creativity and imagination. For example, if we place a range of boxes near the construction area children will automatically build something, but if we place a range of boxes near the art area, children might decorate and change the function of the boxes through adding paint, paper or graphics. <\/p>\n

The Outdoors<\/strong>
\nCurriculum for Excellence offers opportunities for all children and young people to enjoy first-hand experience outdoors, whether within the school grounds, in urban green spaces, in Scotland\u2019s countryside or in wilder environments.
\nSuch experiences inspire passion, motivating our children and young people to become successful learners and to develop as healthy, confident, enterprising and responsible citizens. The core values of Curriculum for Excellence echo the key concepts of outdoor learning: challenge, enjoyment, relevance, depth, development of the whole person and an adventurous approach to learning. We are so lucky to have a newly designed garden which our working party of staff, children and parents are planning spring planting.
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Learning in the outdoors at our centre is just as valuable as learning indoors. We want the children to experience the changing seasons, the weather, wildlife, planting and growing as well as just being able to explore and play. We believe that there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing. We use the outdoors every day and in all weathers. We do ask that all parents provide suitable waterproof and warm clothing, cosy socks and a pair of wellington boots for their child.<\/p>\n

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The Home Room<\/strong>
\nThe Home Room embraces the importance of learning skills for life with consideration being given to each child’s physical, social and cultural experiences and how these factors impact on children\u2019s development of lifelong skills and capacities. Learning through play requires skilful interactions and conversations in environments that support and extend thinking and actions. The Home Room promotes healthy baking and cooking during every session and children’s independence is encouraged. Educators offer many real life opportunities including sewing and weaving, setting tables, following recipes and ensuring there are opportunities to relax in cosy areas just like home. <\/p>\n

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The STEAM Room <\/strong>
\nCreativity is crucial within science, technology, engineering, art and mathematical learning (STEAM) and the STEAM Room offers learning opportunities in all these areas. Block play is central to our STEAM Room as this fosters creativity and encourages children to play collaboratively, take turns and develop language, especially mathematical language as well as improving fine motor skills.
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\nDigital technologies are also explored in the STEAM room, rapid developments in digital technologies at home and outside, are everywhere and often we find children learn digitally easier than most adults. Digital technologies are changing our habits and, in some cases, making our lives easier and more enjoyable. An emphasis on learning with and through digital technologies, rather than about digital technology will best enhance children\u2019s early learning.
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\nBudding artists can express themselves through art, design and creativity. Creating works of art can enhance your self esteem and improve confidence. Our children are encouraged to plan and use their visions to create new art. Art and creativity allow children to develop their fine motor skills and offers them the time to concentrate on their design. It is wonderful to see children’s patience pay off when they burst with pride with their finished article!
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\nWhile working with art or junk modelling, children develop their descriptive language and often express their feelings and emotions through their creations.<\/p>\n

The Nurture Room<\/strong>
\nAt Cart Mill we understand the importance of nurture for all children but we recognise that there are some who prefer a quieter space during the day. The nurture room is an area that a child or children can go to rest, relax or take part in targeted activities with our visiting professionals. It is a calm, safe space for anyone who needs it.
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The Pond<\/strong>
\nNot forgetting our youngest children. The Pond is our dedicated room for children aged 2. It provides a tailored area for the rapidly developing two year olds.
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\nThe Pond focuses on fostering emerging independence, language development, and early social interaction in a safe, age-appropriate setting.
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\nWe are so excited to share that the garden in the Pond is due to be developed this month. Children still have outdoor access just now but the new garden will be tailored to the exploratory minds of our children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Cart Mill Family Centre we understand how important it is for children to learn through play. We recognise the importance of our children being able to learn through play and lead their own learning. Our educators have created learning environments that offer a wide range of quality experiences which provide choice and challenge. Our … Continue reading Our Learning Environments<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3233,"featured_media":22906,"parent":15,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21872","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3233"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21872"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29500,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21872\/revisions\/29500"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/cartmill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}