Every year in late September, the Macmillan Coffee Morning brings communities together around something wonderfully simple: a cup of tea, a slice of cake, and the act of giving. For nurseries and families, it is also one of the most natural and meaningful opportunities of the year to introduce young children to the idea of kindness in action. Young children learn about generosity, community, and giving back not through explanations, but through being invited to participate in real acts of kindness alongside the adults they trust.
At Footsteps Nurseries across Chingford, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, and Leyton, the Macmillan Coffee Morning is an event we look forward to every year, not just as a fundraiser, but as a genuine community moment and a rich learning experience for the children in our care.
Why This Matters for Young Children
It might seem that charity and community are concepts too abstract for young children to grasp. But in our experience, children understand generosity far more intuitively than we give them credit for. They understand that someone is sad and needs help. They understand that baking something and giving it away is a kind thing to do. They understand that when a community comes together, something good happens.
What they are building, through experiences like a nursery coffee morning, are the early foundations of empathy, social responsibility, and a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves. These are not small things. Research in early childhood development consistently shows that children who develop strong prosocial values in their early years are more likely to show kindness, cooperation, and community-mindedness throughout their lives.
How We Give Back at Footsteps
Our Macmillan Coffee Morning is very much a children's event. They help prepare the treats, and our older children take part in collecting money, a small responsibility but one they take seriously. Around it, we talk with them about what charity actually means: that some people need help, and that we are able to give it.
Children in Need is another fixture in our year, and on Random Acts of Kindness Day we take treats round to our next-door neighbours. It is a simple thing, but it teaches children that kindness extends beyond the nursery walls and into the community we are part of.
Running through all of it is an ongoing conversation with the children about what being kind looks like, and, just as usefully, what it does not.
How Children Experience Giving
The Joy of Making Something for Someone Else
There is something deeply meaningful about a child who bakes a biscuit, decorates it carefully, and then gives it away. The act of making something with their own hands for the benefit of another person is a powerful early experience of generosity. It requires holding someone else's happiness in mind, which is exactly the kind of perspective-taking that underpins empathy.
Being Part of Something Bigger
Young children thrive on belonging. When they understand, in simple and honest terms, that their nursery is joining thousands of other schools and nurseries across the country to raise money for people who need support, that their small act is part of something much larger, they feel a genuine sense of pride and purpose.
Seeing Adults Model Generosity
Children learn by watching. When they see their practitioners, their parents, and their wider community giving time, energy, and care to support others, that behaviour becomes part of their picture of how the world works and how people treat one another. This is one of the quietest and most lasting forms of values education there is.
Simple Ways to Bring This Into Family Life
You do not need a big event to teach children about kindness and giving. Here are some everyday ways to nurture these values at home.
- Involve children in small acts of giving: choosing a toy to donate, helping to bake something for a neighbour, picking flowers from the garden for a family friend
- Talk about feelings honestly, including difficult ones like illness or sadness, in age-appropriate language. Children who understand that others sometimes struggle are more moved to help
- Notice and name generosity when you see it: "You gave your brother the bigger piece. That was such a kind thing to do." What is named is repeated
- Read stories about characters who help others, picture books that explore kindness, community, and giving are a wonderful way to open up these conversations
- Let children lead: ask them what they think would make someone feel better, or how they would like to help. Their ideas are often the most creative and the most heartfelt
Our Community in Waltham Forest
One of the things we love most about our nurseries in Chingford, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, and Leyton is the strength of the local communities they sit within. Waltham Forest is a borough with a powerful tradition of neighbourliness, and we feel that every time families come through our doors.
The Macmillan Coffee Morning is a chance to celebrate that community, to invite families in, and to let children see that their nursery is not just a place they come to play, but a place that cares about the world beyond its walls.
We hope to see you at ours. And if your child comes home with icing sugar on their nose and a very proud expression, you will know it was a good morning.
