Values

the 3 ‘Ls’

At Mr Noah’s we do not have ‘rules’, but we do have shared values-things in which we believe. You may expect everything to be conducted consistently with these bullet-points. Staff model the values rather than imposing rules.

The values are:

  • Loving one another
  • gentle Living
  • Learning together
This is the logo we use to represent our 3 Ls values

Loving one another is about genuinely caring for others. We care about your children. We are not a business primarily concerned to make money. We are not a government department meeting targets. We have a real concern for the children’s well-being and development. We treat the children as individuals and with kindness and tenderness. ‘Love’ is the right word. We expect children to learn to be loving to one another. When they care for one another they do not laugh at accidents that happen to their friends, but help when things go wrong. They learn to feel for each other and to look after each other.

Gentle Living is about treating the environment with respect. That means the globe, of course, but it starts with the more immediate environment of the garden and the classroom. We share in the task of carefully putting things away and keeping resources in good condition. Children learn to return bugs to their habitat, or to close farm gates behind them, and so on. Even when children are excited or have lots of physical energy, there is still an important place for treating everything with due respect.

We also want to ensure a gentle and peaceable context in which children would be able to feel secure and flourish. Gentleness is a way in which staff and children work together to make it that kind of learning environment.

Learning together is something else which is really important. The children are learning all the time, but all of us at Mr Noah’s should be learners. Members of staff are expected to do courses of training so that they are moving forward in their understanding of Early Years. We have students on placement from time to time. As school or college students they are learning about working with children. As staff we learn from the children too-all the time. Learning is not just something which is imposed by staff, but something in which we are all involved together. So children develop their understanding in a whole environment of learning-where everyone values learning.

You will appreciate that these values are very different from a set of rules to control behaviour from without. They are inner motives that influence character and equip children for their lives.