Our
Story
Fingertips was founded in 2010 by husband and wife team Jenny and Shaun, who shared a passion for working with children. Previously, Jenny had gained quantitative experience, particularly working with children with additional needs in schools. As a result of this, she qualified as a teacher, gaining valuable skills and insight into this fascinating field of work. The couple had a strong desire to improve the quality of children's' lives, confidence, self-belief, learning and development using a non-traditional, holistic approach, because they recognised that today’s society, education system and lifestyle sometimes did the opposite.
After setting up Fingertips and qualifying in Childcare Level 4 Shaun discovered the Scandinavian Forest School approach and immediately began training to become a Level 3 Forest School Practitioner. Jenny was very quickly on board with this having researched the impact of Forest School on our brain development and personally seeing the impact that Forest School had on the children who attended Fingertips Forest School sessions. They were so impressed with the level of development, self-belief and confidence in these children in such a short space of time that they have continued to develop this balanced approach between the indoor, outdoor and Forest School settings.
During all of this Jenny trained and qualified as an Early Years teacher and has continued her personal development journey. The latest of these very exciting opportunities being the Fingertips Woodland Nursery which is their exciting new adventure that will continue to give opportunity to children to excel in what they are good at, learn about who they are as a person and grow in confidence.
"Today you have had all of my children at some point and despite all being different ages and different characters they all loved every minute and have all been telling everyone what a great time they have had. I just wanted to show my appreciation as I can see how hard you all work to make the children happy and it really shows so thank you again from a very happy mummy with very happy children".
At Fingertips Preschool and Forest School we offer inclusive, enriching and exciting opportunities in a nurturing and sensitive environment where each child is valued and encouraged to have fun and be happy, whilst learning new skills. There is a high adult to child ratio of a highly-qualified team that allows us to focus on each child’s individual needs.
Decision making and age appropriate independence are encouraged. There are topics that we investigate but we always respond to your child’s individual interests and build on their strengths. We aim to meet and plan for the individual social and learning needs of each child every week whilst having lots of fun along the way.
Our qualified and passionate team ensure that each day is packed with exciting and motivating learning opportunities. We strive to offer our children the opportunity to embark on a journey towards a life-long love of learning.
We are delighted to announce that we are opening Fingertips Woodland Nursery at the Wildlife Area in Manland Primary School. The day begins at 8am and ends at 4pm. You may drop off your child any time before 8.30am and collect anytime between 3.30pm and 4pm. An additional hour (4pm until 5pm) is available. We accept 2-year-old funding, 3-4-year old 15-hour funding, and a number of 30 hour funded places.
Children will be provided with a simple healthy breakfast and two healthy snacks (morning and afternoon). Parents will supply a healthy packed lunch. The children will have continuous free flow from the indoor nursery to the woodland garden. There will be regular fun planned activities, small group time teaching and, very importantly, Forest School learning.
A qualified Forest School practitioner will be engaging children with: whittling, sawing, fire lighting skills and more. This is an holistic Scandinavian approach that develops collaborative learning skills, problem solving, co-operation, confidence building and self-esteem. We believe this is the very best way to learn.
Children who attend Fingertips Creative Arts and Forest School develop a wide range of valuable skills.
