When a visitor walks into Nursery 1 at eleven in the morning, they see children pouring water between jugs, building towers, and arguing amiably about whose turn it is with the red spade.

What they are looking at is mathematics, language and self-regulation being learned in the only way they can be learned at three: by doing them, repeatedly, with an adult nearby who names what is happening.

Play-based does not mean unplanned. Every area in the room is set up on purpose, changed weekly, and watched. The adult who looks like she is chatting is taking a running record.