Northern Enterprise Awards 2025/ 26 Best Early Years Education Provider 2025 – North Yorkshire A child’s earliest experiences shape the rest of their life, and in these first years where their brain is still developing, ensuring they receive the highest amount of nurturing, supportive care, and exciting education is crucial. Covering all of these bases is Performatots, a place where childhood is sacred. Anchored by a team of experienced, qualified, and passionate teachers, we take a closer look at the breath of fresh air that is Performatots below, exploring the inspirational early education it provides. Based in Harrogate, Performatots – officially Performatots Early Years Department – is a safe, purpose-built haven for children from 20 months up to five years. Led by the motto: ‘Dream big, aim high, shine bright!’, the aim of this location is for children to be able to achieve this in their own time and in their own way. To help them shine and build essential skills early on, Performatots offers a diverse curriculum rooted in enriching arts such as dance, drama, art, and music, which it uses as vehicles to teach core subjects. Maths, literacy, science, and all other areas of EYFS are covered, but so too are the equally important areas of developing a child’s creativity and curiosity with purpose. This is why one minute may see children painting sunflowers and the next they may be excavating the ‘bones’ of a ‘dinosaur’ in the garden. Children are more discerning than many people think when it comes to learning and figuring out what their brains and hands want to do next, and it is this which makes Performatots’ diverse curriculum not just exciting, but an adventure. “Our curriculum is ambitious, inspirational, challenging, and nurturing. You are joining an arts-inspired school with creative thinkers, originality, and ingenuity abound.” Hitting the ‘four Cs’ – creative, curious, confident, and capable – across all of the subjects it delivers, Performatots’ ability to do this for all of its children on a daily basis comes from the more than 100 years of experience in early years shared by its team, not to mention the five degrees and four post-graduate qualifications they also boast between them. Beyond these credentials, every member of the staffing team at Performatots possesses that indescribable ‘something’ that makes them great with children, and this really shows. Some great examples of this are the teacherled activities delivered daily by the team, joining child-centred activities and free play in comprising what a typical day at Performatots looks like. All sorts of wonderful things are explored during these teacher-led sessions, from gymnastics and languages through to yoga, baking, and even getting muddy on the field as part of the nature-inspired activities that make up Science School. The enthusiasm of the team as they deliver the sessions is infectious, leading to a joyous atmosphere. This continues through to the play-oriented sessions also offered over the course of the day, where the children are in control of what they do and can explore the world around them at their own pace. Described by the great Albert Einstein as the “highest form of research”, play is not a luxury, nor is it frivolous or something to be undervalued. It is vital, necessary, and a fundamental part of a child’s development. Free play is this idea taken to the next level, a totally selfmotivated form of expression that is always welcome at Performatots. Supporting the children as they both learn and play are the dedicated spaces within Performatots’ centre. Not only does the site have a dedicated yoga and dance studio, it also has a sensory ‘Zen Den’, the popular ‘Performatots Bistro’ for baking, a pre-owned lending library, a modern music-making area, and a number of free-play classrooms. The magic continues outside with an outdoor courtyard classroom, secret garden, fruit garden/vegetable patch, beach kitchen, water wall, climbing bridge, and even a dedicated atelier. All of this adds up to make Performatots unrivalled when it comes to pre-schools and early years education in the region, and its commitment to being something unapologetically different that champions the autonomy of every child as they grow and develop into the best version of themselves has resulted in its recognition here as the Best Early Years Education Provider 2025 – North Yorkshire. More on its great work can be found below. Contact: Kelly Nevett Company: Performatots Web Address: https://www.performatots.com/
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