What are Froebelian nurseries?

Friedrich Froebel was a German teacher and education reformer who lived and practised in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Friedrich Froebel founded the Froebelian approach with Froebel kindergarten. His Froebelian nurseries continue around the world to this day.

Froebel believed that pre-education was the most important part of education overall. He chose the name ‘kindergarten’ because it translates to ‘garden of children’ and ‘garden for children’. The name is befitting of his teaching philosophy as each child is nurtured to grow and blossom as an individual. The story goes that the name came to him while hiking in the mountains of Thuringia. He was so excited that he shouted “Eureka!” to the sky.

Froebel was a pioneer in training women to teach this in his kindergarten, in a field dominated by men. He also founded schools and published educational material during his lengthy career.

Today, Froebel’s specific ideas are continued in nurseries that adopt the Froebelian approach.

The Froebelian approach

The Froebelian approach centres around supporting children to learn new things and develop their skills of their own free will from an early age. To him, education was freedom, and play was the best way to educate young children. As he wrote, “A child’s play is his work”.

In Froebelian nurseries, children can explore their interests, make their own decisions and grow to value the independence that learning the skills they want gives them. By providing educational opportunities and materials, known as ‘gifts’, and the freedom to explore them, Froebelian nurseries enable children to challenge themselves, learn the importance of self-discipline in achieving their goals, and grow as confident individuals.

While many of the Froebelian practices and values are similar to other early years approaches, they differ in embracing the child’s individuality from the get-go, whatever their age. Rachel Brook, manager of the Ofsted-rated ‘Outstanding’ First Steps Nursery at Froebelian, in Leeds, explains:  “I do think many nurseries do follow the principles without realising it as they are very similar to Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Forest Schools etc. I think easily accessible training and practical examples would encourage more settings to embrace Froebel.”

Ms Brook continues: “Froebel starts with what the child knows, can do and their interests as an individual, whereas Montessori has already categorised all children into ‘planes of development’ and has a focus on the ‘human tendencies’. To me, this is already grouping and defining your viewpoint on a child and does not allow you to start completely afresh or allow you to observe and find out about that child without any prior bias.”

How children learn in a Froebelian nursery

Froebelian nurseries start with what each child can do, rather than focusing on gaps in their knowledge. This starts on their first day at nursery, when staff will ask parents about their child’s interests, passions and capabilities. Ms Brook affirms: “Parents already know if their child can clap or pick things up with a pincer grasp. They know what their children can do, how often they do it, what they like and don’t like.”

Learning is led by the children themselves and the Froebelian principles. These are detailed in Helen Tovey’s pamphlet for the Froebel Trust. The key principles are:

Freedom with guidance

Childcare professionals encourage and support children to pursue their own interests, move between indoor and outdoors paces as they choose and make their own decisions. For example, if a child had visited a farm at the weekend and was, for that week, fascinated by farms, they could be supported to look at books about farmyard animals and provided with materials to make their own play-tractor. Staff would also ask the child open-ended questions that inspire them to learn more about farms, such as ‘Why do you think farmers plant seeds in the spring?’ or ‘Why do you think farms have these particular animals?’

Guidance, however, is necessary in order that one child’s freedom does not inhibit that of another. Children still practise sharing and taking turns. Guidance also gives children ideas and ways to explore their interests that they didn’t know about before.

Connection

Supporting a child’s uniqueness meant, to Froebel, supporting ‘the whole child’. This means that their education is connected to all aspects of their life, including their family, friends, beliefs, culture, personality and local community. Connecting education with the child as an individual makes for meaningful learning. Activities such as learning about and celebrating each other’s diversity, or visits to the local community, help to build children’s sense of belonging as well as respect and value of others and themselves.

Engaging with nature

Children can engage in activities that teach them about all aspects of nature, from gardening their own little plot with the seeds of their choice, to exploring woodland, to scientific experiments to learn about natural forces and enhance their motor skills.

Independent activities

‘Gifts’ that children can use in their independent activities include materials that allow plenty of room for imagination, creativity and learning. These gifts could be natural materials like clay, sand and water, everyday items like crates or (child-safe) homeware, or items for more specific activities, like puzzles and art materials.

Importantly, staff encourage children to reflect on their experiences in independent activities and examine what they have learned.

Play

The centre point of Froebel’s approach is giving children long periods of time to devote to play, allowing for their games to progress and for them to really engage with and develop their ideas. Their activities in play are their choice, with plenty of imagination-encouraging ‘gifts’ available both indoors and outdoors. Play also gives them space to build social connections and skills, and to learn from their playmates.

Creativity

As with all pre-educational approaches, this method gives great value to enabling children to express their feelings and ideas creatively. Children can choose to engage in painting, drawing, crafts, music and dance. In the Froebelian approach, these creative outlets are for children to explore their own representations of their subject matter. For example, a painting that represents ‘happiness’ doesn’t have to be a yellow smiling sun, it can look very different from one child to the next. Children are supported to explore their own symbolism, rather than learned representations.

In practice, the principles remain flexible, according to each child’s present experiences. Ms Brook asserts: “If you set down strict principles it becomes outdated. I don’t think you need to do a course. The principles are easy to follow. Everything starts with the child, not the adult’s thought processes. Forget planning activities. We don’t impose themes and topics.

“Ownership and responsibility is handed to children. Usually children aren’t given the chance to have that.

“The children are happy, purposeful in play, confident, calm, busy. Our children make successful school leavers because they are so confident and are willing to try anything.”