Preschool

The children move to our Preschool building at 3 or 4 years of age. In Preschool we plan many different activities for the children to develop skills across all areas of the curriculum. Most children attend Preschool full time, which is 5 mornings a week.

By providing an enriched child-centred learning environment the children learn to interact, share, express themselves, explore, discover and invent.

Goals

The most important goal of our early childhood curriculum is to help children become enthusiastic learners. This means encouraging children to be active and creative explorers who are not afraid to try out their ideas and to think their own thoughts. We want to help children become independent, self-confident, inquisitive learners. We’re teaching them how to learn, not just in preschool, but all through their lives. We’re allowing them to learn at their own pace and in the ways that are best for them.

There are several key areas of focus for the Preschool Programme:

Personal, Social and Emotional Development: The children become increasingly confident in themselves and able to communicate their needs. They are able to share and interact positively with their peers and teachers.
We achieve this by encouraging shared games and activities. They learn to take turns, to listen to others and to be good caring friends to each other.

Physical Development: includes gross motor and fine motor skills.
Gross Motor skills are developed through many activities such as climbing, running, jumping, swimming, ball games or following obstacle courses. Gymnastics classes are introduced for the older children in the last couple of terms in Preschool.

Fine Motor Skills are developed in classroom and outside play activities. The children have choices in visiting “Play Centres” where they can choose the activities that interest them, such as threading, lego, construction play etc. There are many opportunities for the children to develop fine motor skills by participating in sand play, water play, painting, drawing, play dough activities etc.

Communication, Language and Literacy
The language of instruction is English, and language skills are developed continually while the children are engaged in the many varied daily activities. The children’s literacy skills develop through listening and responding to stories. They are encouraged to communicate verbally, to tell their own stories and relate their own experiences. We have a wonderful library in our Preschool filled with many different types of children’s books which the children may borrow. Pre-writing skills are developed alongside their fine motor skills. In Preschool the children begin to learn early phonics which serves as the foundation to successful reading.

Mathematical Development
Counting and number skills are developed through many different play activities. The children enjoy puzzles, games, sorting and counting activities. They begin solving maths problems through their imaginative play activities (e.g. playing shop) To acquire the foundation for logical thinking, children need many opportunities to count objects, sort them into piles, and add some to a pile and take some away. It is by playing games like these that they will learn to truly understand addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. Without these concrete experiences, children may give correct answers but probably won’t understand what they are doing and why.

Creative Development
We believe that each child has creative potential and we aim to develop this. The children enjoy music, singing, dancing, drawing, painting, craft and pretend play on a regular basis. They also participate in a Christmas concert in December each year.

Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Various activities are planned around themes that are meaningful to children. In this way they learn much about the world around them and their place in it. For example, for a theme on Animals the children might sing songs, paint, do craft projects and observe pets like fish, turtles, or guinea pigs. They might listen to stories about different types of animals, move like different animals, pretend to be dolphins in the pool or lions in pretend play time. They might visit the local zoo.