Our nurseries
We’re an award-winning group of 39 London nurseries! Browse our nurseries and find out more about our teams, our Pedagogy and more.
Social justice pedagogy is about believing that education should help shape a fairer, more sustainable, and more compassionate world. At its heart, it is about how we lead, teach and learn—the art, craft, and science of education—while recognising that children and adults live in deeply connected and interdependent relationships with each other, with their communities, and with the wider world.
At LEYF, we have pioneered a pedagogy of social justice, built from Dr June O’Sullivan’s work in shaping its principles and embedding them into practice across the organisation. This approach is not abstract theory but a tested framework that informs how we teach, lead and organise.
Our Social Justice Pedagogy is interwoven with our purpose: providing high-quality education for all children, regardless of background, while creating jobs, supporting families and influencing cultural change. Grounded in the three pillars of sustainability—economic, social and environmental—it empowers adults and children to become sustainability-informed citizens working towards a fairer future. By applying and refining the seven elements in practice, we have shown how pedagogy can be both principled and pragmatic, transforming nurseries into places of excellence, equity and community impact.
Our Pedagogy is our teaching model, so children become enthusiastic, inquisitive learners.
Seven strands of the Social Justice Pedagogy, pioneered at LEYF
These are the seven strands:
1. Leading for a culture of excellence
We believe in what we do and live our values every day.
2. Spiral curriculum
Extending and supporting children to reach their potential.
3. Enabling environments
Using the nursery space, indoors and out, to create exciting learning opportunities.
4. Harmonious relationships
Building loving relationships between staff, children and parents.
5. Safe, fit and healthy
Nutritious home-cooked food, encouraging our children to be active, healthy and keeping them safe.
6. Home learning
Conversations with parents to extend and enrich children’s development between home and nursery.
7. Multi-generational approach
Connecting with the local community so families grow together and find their place in a changing world.
The Social Justice Pedagogy Rope
The Social Justice Pedagogy Rope represents how teachers at LEYF lead learning to provide the very best outcomes for our children.
Setting strong foundations
The Social Justice Pedagogy is designed to set strong foundations to help children achieve in all areas, by widening their network of social relationships and expanding their cultural horizons.
By attending a LEYF nursery, children will build social capital through the friendships they make with people from different backgrounds and their involvement in the local community.
Their cultural capital is expanded through a rich language and literacy approach, as well as trips to the theatre, museums, parks and libraries.
At LEYF, we provide children with the freedom to explore their interests and follow their own lines of enquiry. We encourage our children not only to answer questions, but to ask them, and provide them with the tools to explore and discover the world around them at their own pace.
We see children as competent, creative and curious beings, and encourage them to lead their own learning.
LEYF teachers highly value the child’s opinions, views and voice. We recognise the uniqueness of every child, their individual strengths, learning styles, knowledge and experiences. We use this information to ensure children are able to learn at their own pace and in a way that is meaningful to them.
We see children as competent, creative and curious beings, and encourage them to lead their own learning.
We, like Froebel, believe that play is the best vehicle for children’s learning and is ‘not trivial, but highly serious with deep significance’. Play is vital for children’s development and welfare. It is how they express strong feelings, rehearse experiences and interact socially. Play is the main medium through which we teach. This includes a daily balance between child-initiated free flow play and planned activities which engage children and stimulate creativity, wonder, enthusiasm and enjoyment.
