Tag: Alphablocks Research Lab

Alphablocks Research Lab: 2025 Report

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date December 19, 2025

Executive Summary

In 2025, Alphablocks Research Lab continued its mission to advance the science of child development and mental health.

This year, the lab focused on how early environments influence learning and mental health throughout development, from childhood to adolescence. Using large-scale data from population cohorts, longitudinal surveys, and neuroimaging scans, our work examined how social safety, parenting, inequality, cognition, and digital environments influence children’s development.

Below we summarise this year’s research by theme.

2025 in Review

Celebrating 10 Years!
New site in Hadley Wood – now in its 2nd year.
Twice Rated “Outstanding” by Ofsted (2018, 2024).
BBC-Pearson Early Years Team of the Year (2025).
New Projects by Alphablocks Research Lab.

Tags Alphablocks Research Lab, child development, Cockfosters Nursery School, early learning, early years, Enfield Nursery, Hadley Wood Montessori Nursery School, nursery school, Ofsted Outstanding, Outstanding, pre-school education, Reggio Emilia

Alphablocks Research Lab Annual Research Report Early Years Education Research on Early Years Development

Alphablocks Research Lab: 2023 Report

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date December 27, 2023

Executive Summary

Alphablocks Nursery School is committed to providing outstanding education and empowering children to become confident learners. In 2023, our research organisation, Alphablocks Research Lab, funded academic work that made significant contributions in the exploration of childhood social cognitive abilities and mental health outcomes. This report summarises the year’s achievements.

Tags Alphablocks Research Lab, child development, early learning, nursery school, report

Alphablocks Research Lab Cockfosters Nursery Early Years Education Early Years Foundation Stage Enfield Nursery Ofsted outstanding Pre-School Learning Research on Early Years Development

The long-term impact of early social cognition & Theory of Mind

Post author By Alphablocks Nursery School
Post date March 23, 2023

There are a few aspects of child development that teachers, parents and carers often talk about when it comes to nursery-age children. These include aspects of development such as the physical, social, and emotional growth of a child, early literacy and numeracy abilities, or self-regulation skills. However, an area of development that has been relatively overlooked is that of social cognition. It includes a complex set of skills that are crucial for development and have long-lasting impact, well beyond childhood. In this post, we briefly discuss the basic dimensions of social cognition in early childhood, and summarise some recent findings that have come out of our work at Alphablocks Research Lab in collaboration with leading academics.

Tags Alphablocks Research Lab, Cockfosters Nursery School, early learning, early years, Enfield Nursery, Hadley Wood Montessori Nursery School, nursery school