Nursery World Awards 2018
Apart from our standard range of baskets we also customised baskets and bags for organisations who wanted something more specific:
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Museums running children’s workshops, trainers working with students or training practitioners to work with young children
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Hillingdon used our Bathtime bags to support all the parents of their Children’s Centres to use at home as part of their early language development programme.
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Some of our baskets have gone abroad for instance to UNICEF workers and others to help the ‘Getting School Ready’ programme in Sierra Leone.
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Our Writing Belts were developed with Warwickshire Early Years Team to support children (mainly boys) who were reluctant writers and needed encouragement to understand that writing was a natural part of life and could be part of their everyday role play. These were widely used to support writing development programmes and initiatives.
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Recently we have collaborated with some of the major trade companies who distribute to schools and nursery settings, to make up bespoke collections and source some unusual items especially for them. We also include some of our baskets in their catalogues and on their websites.
About
About Curious Fox Company
MJH Educational was established in 2007 and began life trading as Heritage Treasure Baskets.
Our main product was a range of baskets and we supplied Nurseries, Children’s Centres, child minders and some parents. Operating in a niche market of early years toys and learning resources, we focused on discovery (heuristic) play using natural and nature related material with resources planned to meet children’s needs at various stages of development and with an emphasis on quality. Now known as Curious Fox Company our collections continue to change as we source new and interesting items.
Mary Horn built up MJH Educational after retiring from a lifetime in the world of education, covering secondary and primary school teaching, senior primary science advisory teacher and HM Inspector of Schools. This wealth of knowledge and experience means that our products are carefully thought through and handpicked for their learning value, not just the initial ‘wow factor’, giving each and every child the chance to blossom through learning at their own pace, Mary is a great believer that learning doesn’t have to be expensive or cost the earth.
Encouragement starts at a very early age and at home where children’s curiosity can be fed and nurtured.
Maggie, Mary’s daughter joined the company and, with three small children, brought a new and hands-on approach, helping to develop the collections and testing them with a very critical team. With a background in film and television industries Maggie soon began sourcing products and finding unusual treasures, she helped move towards launching Curious Fox Company with its distinctive resources designed to feed young explorers and discoverers. Other members of the family have supporting roles including Dr Margaret Robinson, Mary’s sister who recently retired as Warwickshire Early Years Inspector after a career working with young children and advising practitioners.
We have won a number of awards for our products over the years, both Baskets and Writing Belts.
We continue to work with companies and organisations to produce Treasure Baskets and Collections which:
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encourage children to explore and investigate the world around them
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promote active learning without the use of technology
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are valuable for their learning experience
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provide some guidance to help understand the reasons why the collections were developed, how they can be used and followed up
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are fun and intriguing for both adults and children alike
We are constantly developing our new materials and support guidance as fast as we can. We are very flexible within our product range and this has enabled us to meet the new, challenging and diverse markets which we are finding. Whether children are at the stage of touching and feeling, developing their language, using it, or trying to learn another one, we have resources which will help to deepen the process of learning through play.