For Early Years Educational Settings
Our unique online Early Years resources have been designed for mainstream, SEND and alternative provision schools, nurseries, pre-schools, childminders and home educators to use throughout the academic year.
✔ Introductory Session to meet the Let’s Grow characters!
✔ 28 session plans across 4 modules offer numerous opportunities for meaningful play-based learning, fostering critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, imaginative and sensory engagement.
✔ Interactive video calls with engaging characters start every session.
✔ Simple preparation and practical delivery guides.
✔ 'Get Growing Guide' empowering practitioners to grow fruits and vegetables in any size outdoor space.
✔ Easy to implement ‘Handy Hints’ full of helpful ideas and advice for best practice.
✔ Let’s Grow Baby Character Guide, perfect for enhancing topics and inspiring creativity.
✔ Support for healthy eating, addressing fussy eating, and promoting food and body neutrality.
✔ Enhanced continuous provision ideas, songs, multimedia resources, nutritious recipes and printables.
✔ Opportunity for marketing support, professional development and live training for flagship status settings.
✔ A unique ‘Video Call’ style film, connecting you with Mr. Bloom and the Let’s Grow Nannies & Babies!
✔ Comprehensive session plan, meticulously crafted.
✔ Multimedia resources to support each session theme.
✔ Curriculum linked activities for preschool & reception class children aged 3-5yrs.
✔ Enhanced continuous provision ideas for children aged 2-5yrs.
✔ Stimulating provision for toddlers & babies aged 0-2yrs.
✔ Group, independent and imaginative play activities.
✔ ‘How to’ films and ‘Step-by-step photo instructions’ to make the visiting Let’s Grow Fruit or Vegetable Baby.
✔ Recommended Reading to maximise session theme.
✔ 7 Areas of Learning & Early Learning Goals checklists for every activity.
Our innovative, engaging content is led by our trio of friendly gardeners.
A unique shared experience between practitioners and children is created through heart-warming digital film content and interactive visits from endearing fruit & vegetable baby characters, who are brought to life in the classroom.
Let's Grow content covers engaging themes which are flexible enough to fit into wider learning plans. Sessions are brought to life with the help of innovative, multimedia resources and can be delivered in a variety of ways to suit the setting and needs of children.
A series of sessions where the children meet and care for an adorable family of baby fruits & vegetables in turn, exploring their own identity and diving into the world of Let’s Grow. Each session is introduced by Bob, Flo & the babies.
Ideal for collecting baseline data and helping children settle into a new learning environment.
Practical sessions that focus on the natural world, plants, growing things and where our food comes from. Children get hands-on experience growing mushrooms, radishes, potatoes, peppers, rainbow chard and lettuce. Each session is introduced by CBeebies’ favourite gardener, Mr. Bloom.
Our ‘Get Growing Guide’ is easy to implement and will have you growing fruits and vegetables with confidence in no time!
A calendar of sessions exploring celebrations throughout the year. Children are visited and care for a new baby fruit or vegetable who’s keen to learn more. Each session is introduced by Bob, Flo and the babies.
Perfect for exploring beliefs and traditions, and how we celebrate across the world.
Four sessions that introduce the seasons of the year. Each session is introduced by CBeebies’ favourite gardener, Mr. Bloom.
Ideal for learning about changes in weather and the seasonal impact on plants and animals.
Coming Soon!
As part of the programme we also enable children to work towards the fabulous ‘Arts Award Discover’in partnership with Trinity College London.
Arts Award Discover is an introductory award which children can achieve as part of their Let’s Grow experience. It’s designed for ages 5 and above, and we provide everything educators need.
Support your Early Years training curriculum with staff and student access to our incredible resources. Get in touch to discuss partnership opportunities.
Get Instant Access to our INCREDIBLE online education platform which includes all the learning materials. Select the option that fits your educational setting best below.
“As a school and integrated network of children’s centres, we are committed to school readiness and are passionate about exploring new programmes that benefit children in terms of their progress over time as well as contributing to a rich, broad and relevant curriculum. In my opinion, Let’s Grow is a fantastic example of such a programme. It is very much aimed at increasing children’s skill in the areas of communication, language and literacy as well as personal, social and emotional development. These are key elements of the school readiness agenda. The Let’s Grow programme allows children to explore extremely relevant areas of interest that contribute to school readiness. Throughout, the programme remains very interesting and motivating for very young children. The sessions are structured in their delivery which allows the practitioner to differentiate according to the group but also flexible in that it provides lots of examples of play within continuous provision. Such an approach creates a fundamental atmosphere that allows for children to become deeply engaged in their learning, providing depth and breadth as well as opportunities to be creative and think critically.”
Donna Crawford – SENDco/ Deputy Head Teacher, Martenscroft Nursery School
LEAD TEACHER:
Donna Crawford, SENDco & Deputy Head Teacher
SETTING:
Martenscroft Nursery School and Sure Start Centre
COHORT:
Two nursery classes (60 children)
ABOUT THE SETTING:
Average sized nursery school High proportion ESL Designated as a centre of Early Excellence and Early Years Teaching Centre
TEACHER OBSERVATIONS OF IMPACT
To date, the children have benefitted from the programme in many positive ways. It was a break through moment for one of our children. This child clearly wanted to participate in the activity and feed the vegetable babies with a bottle. For the first time ever, the child raised their hand and went to the front and fed the baby. The child engaged in a short conversation. This was amazing because this child had been language screened in a previous setting and was deemed “elective mute” The Let’s Grow programme created the perfect opportunity to communicate needs and wants. Ongoing, we now have a child who is demonstrating more confidence in self as well as using language as a vehicle to develop own voice at both home and school.
Another example of the power of the programme was when a child, again invited to sit at the front and feed the baby, carefully nurtured the vegetable with kindness and gentle handling. This was very challenging for this child who typically would be finding it difficult to self-regulate. Ongoing, this child is learning the rules of friendships.
Parents were enthused about the babies. One parent went on to buy the vegetables at the local market and sent them into school for the children to explore. For us, this was an unexpected bonus of the programme – it creates opportunity to link both home and school learning and in my opinion, this is one of the greatest tools for giving children the opportunity to be highly engaged.
To summarise, on closer analysis of last year’s data, children made excellent progress in communication and language and given the context that we work in, this will always remain a high priority on our centre improvement plans. The Lets Grow programme would clearly contribute to raising standards in this area.
In the area of physical, social and emotional development, managing feelings and behaviour scored 76% of children in line or above. This increased from 54% in the previous year. The example I have shared about providing self-regulation is interesting. I believe Let’s Grow provides tools in a box for children to explore so that they are emotionally well and ready to learn.
Finally, the highest attainment and progress over time last year was in the prime area of physical development – 78% of children scored in line or above in the area of health and self-care. This would be a direct link to Let’s Grow.
I am very impressed with the Let’s Grow programme and believe that it contributes highly to pupil engagement, attainment in the prime areas as well as being a fantastic tool for creating opportunities for children to become school ready. I look forward to continuing the programme in this coming year.
✔ Raises attainment
✔ Covers all areas of the EYFS curriculum
✔ Spans the 7 Areas of Learning
✔ Is based on ‘Development Matters’
✔ Is informed by the ‘Characteristics of Effective Learning’
✔ Explores themes of nature, gardening, growing, nurturing, diversity and inclusion.
✔ Provides hundreds of opportunities for meaningful play-based learning
“Let’s Grow had an amazing effect on our reception class. Children transformed from being quiet, shy, lacking in confidence when starting school, to becoming confident and expressive. They were able to demonstrate their wonderful caring nature towards the fruit and vegetable babies. Children were given opportunities to learn new vocabulary, practise asking questions and learning to take turns, all in a meaningful fun imaginative context. The children loved the fruit and vegetable babies. They couldn’t wait to meet the next one and find out how they could help and nurture them. This is great for baseline assessments. We can’t wait to use Let’s Grow with our new year group in September. Even creating the veg babies and putting them in nappies with their cute googly eyes was fun for me!”
Jo Worthy – Reception Teacher, Barden Primary School
LEAD TEACHER:
Jo Worthy, Reception Teacher
SETTING:
Barden Primary School
COHORT:
Two Reception classes (60 children)
ABOUT THE SETTING:
Large urban Primary School
High proportion ESL
Many children enter the school with a low baseline assessment
TEACHER OBSERVATIONS OF IMPACT
Let’s Grow encouraged the children to take on a role of caring for a veg baby, this is something that was easy for them to become confident with. It was great at taking turns as there was only one veg baby and children would talk to one another about who was going to have the next go and if it was fair. Children who previously maybe would not have shown a caring and compassionate side were given the opportunity to (different to a doll in a role play as it was new, interesting and exciting). Children remembered previous veg babies and talked about comparing them. Children seemed to listen really carefully to what was said about each veg baby, so that they could treat them accordingly. More verbal children would use this information to tell others how to behave! Most children had previous knowledge of babies and could use this knowledge and it was something to talk about and share what they knew. Children talked about the actual fruit and vegetables and were interested in the ones they had not come across before. It was a common theme to talk about. As many of our children had English as a second language it was a great opportunity to model new words, sentence structure and one massive point in our setting - to ask questions.
Some children became more confident in showing that they wanted a turn at looking after the veg babies. Standing back from the crowd at first and then coming closer as they got more anxious that they would not get a turn. Once they had a turn, they made sure they then asked rather than just stood and watched. There were discussions on feelings and behaviour but these were mainly teacher driven and children contributed.
It was wonderful how the veg babies gave the children so many opportunities to display their caring side. It was great that both girls and boys wanted to be involved, whereas sometimes it is the case that it is the girls that take over being the parent in role play of doll babies. The veg babies have different personalities with different ‘toys/resources’ that come with them - this really encourages different children be drawn into the imaginary world and gives them a ‘hook’ to draw them in. The quietest child loved that the potato veg baby had an aeroplane, he began making the noises of the plane and eventually started to make up stories as he flew them around.
The children really benefited from knowing the veg babies were coming to our school to learn to get them ready for their school. It gave us an avenue for us to talk about how they felt about starting school, how they would feel more settled as they spent longer in school and got used to the surroundings.
Teachers, childcare professionals and home educators...
✔ To deliver creative EYFS activities & curriculum
✔ To harness the power of creativity and play
✔ To aid in collecting baseline data
✔ For parental engagement opportunities
✔ For professional development
✔ To grow fruits and vegetables with confidence
✔ To support and encourage learning on...
👫 Identity and belonging
🥗 Healthy eating and nutrition
❄️ The four seasons and celebrations throughout the year
🪴 The natural world and gardening
🏠 Essential early life skills
“We absolutely loved Let’s Grow! Children were engaged and given opportunities to touch, smell, and discover through a range of mediums. The fruit and vegetable babies brought out a nurturing side to the children that we hadn’t seen before and gave lots of communication opportunities. The children truly thought that we were being visited by the babies and they made so many things for them including models, pictures and cards, as it gave them a purpose and a role to fulfil. We recommend it to any school for the amazing cross curricula links and opportunities for learning that it provides.”
Natasha Willenbrook – Reception Teacher, Cherry Fold Community Primary
LEAD TEACHER:
Natasha Willenbrook, Reception Teacher
SETTING:
Cherry Fold Community Primary School
COHORT:
Two Reception classes (53 children)
ABOUT THE SETTING:
Large urban Primary School. High proportion of children are eligible for PP funding High proportion of children who have SEN or disabilities Many children join or leave the school at times other than is usual
TEACHER OBSERVATIONS OF IMPACT
Listening to the initial video encouraged gathering information, waiting their turn to say hello to the visiting baby, turn taking in giving their ideas and showing caring actions toward the fruit & vegetable babies.
The children were able to develop confidence in expression and managing feelings and behaviour.
The programme gave opportunities for children to demonstrate caring and kind actions, which supported children’s emotional and emotive language and gave opportunities to develop turn taking and being kind to others.
The children could project their own worries and anxieties onto the visiting baby, therefore helping them in settling into school themselves.
Let's Grow creates the opportunity for children to...
✔ Explore and engage with the natural world.
✔ Build personal, social and emotional confidence.
✔ Develop language and communication skills.
✔ Think critically.
✔ Grow a stronger sense of wellbeing.
✔ Learn through immersive, imaginative play.
✔ Develop a sense of nurture, caretaking and responsibility.
✔ Achieve school readiness.
✔ Have hands-on sensory experiences.
✔ Experience growing fruit and veg from seed to harvest.
✔ To develop fine motor skills.
✔ To understand and experience ‘caring for’ and ‘nurturing’.
✔ To develop self-respect and environmental awareness
“Let’s Grow provided us with a fun, engaging and effective way to help our nursery and reception children settle in to life at Heptonstall School. Let’s Grow is easy to follow, fun to teach and great value! It was a very rewarding process for both the children and staff, giving us an exciting way to start the year and the children made fantastic progress because of it.”
Megan Dodd – Nursery & Reception Teacher, SEND, Heptonstall, Junior, Infant & Nursery School
LEAD TEACHER:
Megan Dodd, Nursery & Reception Teacher, SEND
SETTING:
Heptonstall Junior, Infant & Nursery School
COHORT:
Class 1. A mixed nursery and Reception cohort (14 children)
ABOUT THE SETTING:
Smaller than average rural Primary School Low proportion of children eligible for FSM Low proportion of children with a Statement of SEND
TEACHER OBSERVATIONS OF IMPACT
Although all children made AT LEAST good progress in the two areas targeted by the programme (communication and language and personal, social and emotional development), we were delighted to see that some made advanced progress of two steps rather than one. We particularly saw fantastic progress with Child ‘A’ who at the beginning of the year showed significant speech and language di!culties (she has had a referral to SALT). Over the course of the programme what was a quiet, unconfident, sometimes unengaged child grew into a happy, confident, chatty, keen to learn child! We’re so proud of how far she’s come and we are certain that Let’s Grow played a part in this. She loved the fruit & vegetable babies and they were absolutely a tool to help advance her learning in many areas, particularly her language, communication and personal, social and emotional development.
Not only does Let’s Grow help with progress in communication and language and personal, social and emotional development, it’s clear that it has helped the children with their confidence in general, allowing them to comfortably settle into a new setting / routine. It also encouraged the children to access other areas of the provision which normally they might ignore – the babies and their activities gave them a purpose!
Let’s Grow is a fantastic programme to start at the beginning of the year and we feel like it would’ve been even more beneficial if we could’ve started the programme straight away in September (rather than October), as it’s a great tool to gather baseline data.
Support your Early Years training curriculum with staff and student access to our incredible resources. Get in touch to discuss partnership opportunities.
In this one-of-a-kind experience, the children in your setting will:
✔ Meet Mr. Bloom from CBeebies with his wonderful family of fruit and vegetable characters, in person, in your own school!
✔ Participate in an interactive, fun-filled show where they can help care for the baby fruits and vegetables.
✔ Develop problem-solving skills and enhance their personal, social, and emotional development through imaginative play.
✔ Explore different fruits and vegetables up close, promoting healthy eating habits in a fun and engaging way.
Staff in your setting will take part in an inspirational continuous professional development session led by Mimi & Ben Faulks
To accompany the professional development session staff will receive 12 months access to the transformational Let’s Grow educational resources!
Engage parents in this exciting experience by inviting them along to the show, to experience the magic of Let’s Grow first-hand.
Children and staff become immersed in nature and imaginative play exploring the wonderful themes of creativity, gardening, growing, nurture, healthy eating, diversity and inclusion. The whole experience brings joy and learning to your setting, positively impacting teaching practice and child development with our innovative creative teaching tools!
“Each child, from Nursery to Reception, left the hall absolutely thrilled by what they had experienced.”
“I had the opportunity to spend time with Mimi and Ben as they walked me through the resources they offer to schools. In my 11 years of teaching, I’ve never encountered anything quite like them. Each lesson is crafted to captivate the children, starting with an engaging video call. This carefully curated approach has not only inspired me to use the resources but also to incorporate these methods into my own teaching practice. The creative possibilities these materials allow for are immense. Their work has truly left a lasting impact on our school.”
Aaron Francois-Williams, Assistant Head and Early Years Lead at St Mary’s Catholic Infant School in Croydon