The Early Excellence centre was established in 1999 to undertake early years curriculum development in the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside regions. As part of development work, small research projects are commissioned in early years settings. This article describes how the authors worked with Wingate Community Nursery School. The work was underpinned by the concept of "sustained shared thinking," which derives from research by Siraj-Blatchford and Sylva (DfES, 2002). (Contains 6 figures.)