Our Environment
Spaces to Learn, Explore and Grow
At Young Friends, the environment is part of the education.
Every space, indoors and out, is set up to inspire curiosity, support independence and give children real experiences in the real world.
Our Spaces
Young Friends has two pods: Hedgehogs for children from birth to two, and Badgers and Foxes for children aged two to school age.
A private woodland garden in the heart of Hove. A rare and special space where children explore, investigate, take responsibility and develop a real connection with the natural world.
A covered outdoor workshop at the back of our woodland garden, stocked with real tools, real materials and real art equipment. A space where children make, create and problem-solve with freedom and purpose.
Kitchen garden
A working kitchen garden where children grow, harvest and cook their own food. From seed to plate, this is sustainability in practice, not just in principle.
Kindergarten Pods
Our kindergarten is housed in a home in Hove, which gives the whole setting a warm, relaxed feel.
Badgers and Foxes share one free-flow pod space, bringing together children from two years to school age. Hedgehogs have their own dedicated pod, giving our youngest children the safe, calm space they need to develop at their own pace.
Each pod is set up with everything children need:
stimulating play and learning areas
cloakrooms and sleeping areas
changing and toilet facilities
plenty of storage for our loose parts and open-ended resources
Each child always has a familiar base to return to, which is especially important for very young children spending time away from home for the first time.
Woodland Garden
For an urban kindergarten, a private woodland garden is an unusual thing. Ours is one of the things we’re most proud of to able to offer to children.
Planted with native trees and wildlife-attracting plants, the garden changes with the seasons and gives children a living environment to explore all year round. Private and enclosed, it’s also a safe space where different terrains and levels help children build confidence and physical skills at their own pace.
The garden is full of real things to observe and real jobs to do:
a double composter the children manage themselves, producing soil for the kitchen garden
bird houses, berry trees and seed plants that shelter and feed wildlife through the year
insect habitats made from chestnut poles and wooden logs along the garden walls
rain collectors, a weather vane, temperature gauges and hedgehog houses throughout
Our nature calendar means children focus on particular species across the year, learning about the role each one plays and how they can help to protect them.
Woodland Workshops
Our woodland workshop is the children’s favourite spaces.
It’s a covered outdoor space designed for making things: building, crafting, constructing, experimenting. There are no toy tools or plastic here. Children work with real tools sized for little hands, real art materials and sustainably sourced resources, many of which are off-cuts and leftovers donated by families.
Carefully supervised, children make real things with real outcomes.
Along the way, children develop:
fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination
early design and engineering thinking
creative confidence and problem-solving
a can-do approach to challenges
Our kitchen garden is where our sustainability values become visible.
Children are involved at every stage of the process, and they love it. There’s something about growing your own food, watching it develop and then eating it that captures children’s imaginations in a way very little else does.
From seed to plate, children take part in:
planting, weeding, watering and harvesting
composting and collecting rainwater
preparing and cooking what they’ve grown
observing and learning about local wildlife and biodiversity
Along the way, they develop a natural understanding of where food comes from, how to care for it and why it matters.
Life at Young Friends
Read more about our ethos, daily practice, early years education, sustainability and real-life learning at our kindergarten in Hove
Whether you’re new to Young Friends or already part of our community, there’s plenty to explore.
The Just Right System
