September always feels like a fresh start. New shoes, a new class, and for the youngest children, a whole new world of textures, sounds and smells to make sense of. Watch a five-year-old at the start of term and you will see science already happening: they squeeze, sniff, listen and taste their way through the day. It is messy, joyful and, as it turns out, the foundation for something far bigger.
Why the early years belong to the senses
Small children do not learn about the world from a distance. They learn by touching cold water, hearing a conker rattle in a jar, watching sand pour through their fingers. Each of these moments is a tiny experiment. What happens if I press harder? Why does this feel different from that?
Sensory play looks like fun, and it is, but underneath the mess something serious is being built. Children are gathering evidence about how things behave. They are noticing patterns, testing ideas and forming questions. Nobody hands them a hypothesis. They arrive at one on their own, simply by paying close attention to what their senses tell them.
From squeezing playdough to weighing evidence
The jump from a sensory tray to a laboratory bench is not as wide as it seems. The child who once asked why the ice melted faster near the radiator is asking the same kind of question at fifteen, only now with a thermometer and a results table. The instinct is identical. The tools have simply grown up.
This is why the best learning environments treat curiosity as something to protect over the long term rather than a phase to move past. A child who is encouraged to trust their observations at five is far more comfortable questioning, measuring and reasoning at fifteen. Schools that understand this thread often connect early sensory exploration with later scientific confidence, which is one reason families look for settings that nurture curiosity from the earliest years through to sixth form rather than treating each stage in isolation.
Keeping the senses switched on at home
You do not need special equipment to keep this going through the autumn term. A few simple ideas:
– Cook together. Let children smell the herbs, feel the dough, watch the cake rise. Baking is chemistry with a tasty result.
– Go outside. Autumn is a sensory feast. Crunchy leaves, cold air, the smell of rain. Ask what they notice and why.
– Encourage the “what if” question. When your child wonders aloud, resist giving the answer straight away. Try it and see together.
The aim is not to turn playtime into a lesson. It is to keep the channel open, so that noticing and questioning stay part of everyday life.
The long view
It is easy to see childhood in separate boxes: nursery, primary, secondary. In reality, the thoughtful teenager working through a physics problem and the toddler splashing in a puddle are the same person, following the same instinct to understand. Good schools honour that continuity, building on early wonder rather than replacing it with rote answers.
So when you next find your five-year-old elbow-deep in mud or shrieking at the feel of cold jelly, take heart. That is not a distraction from learning. That is where scientific thinking begins. Somewhere down the line, those same senses will be trained on a microscope, a musical score or a mountain of data, and the habit of paying attention will still be doing its quiet, essential work.
For families thinking about how early curiosity grows into lifelong learning, RGS Guildford offers a helpful perspective at https://rgsg.co.uk.
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*This article was contributed by the admissions team at RGS Guildford, an independent school in Surrey with a long tradition of academic curiosity across every stage of a child’s education, from the early years through to sixth form. RGS Guildford champions the idea that great learning starts with wonder and grows into confident, evidence-led thinking.*
