Classes

Younger Playgroup

18+ Months

Our infant classroom offers strategies for building positive relationships, helping children develop self-regulation and responding to challenging behaviours in a sanitised and safe environment.

Skills that Children Will Learn:

Social Skills – From solitary play, parallel play, to the beginnings of co- operative play. Our environment is structured to encourage interaction between the youngest of our children. We are geared to helping them navigate the path from playing alone or with an adult to meaningful peer interaction guided by our experienced teacher and assistant.
Self-Help Skills – Nothing is more empowering and a better self esteem builder for a child than the ability to complete basic self help skills on their own. We allow and encourage the children to do things for themselves. We offer help and only step in when the child wants us to. The more an adult steps back, the more the child steps up. Never underestimate the tenacity of a 2 year old wanting to put on his own shoes.
Communicative Skills – This age group are language sponges. They soak up new vocabulary, learning new words and applying them on an almost daily basis. We consciously work on vocab building and developing correct grammar. As we model behaviour, so we model correct speech patterns. We read, we rhyme, we sing and we play games that encourage speech development.

Older Playgroup

2-3 Years

Children in the Older Playgroup Classroom are curious and busy exploring the world by using all their senses. Our curriculum is designed to support their early experience of learning and being independent in a nurturing and child-friendly environment.

Skills that Children Will Learn:

Social Skills – We continue to build on the foundations of our youger playgroup. We embrace a conscious discipline approach and teach children how to regulate their behaviour. In a conflict situation we name what the child is feeling and use it as a teaching moment. For example, “You wanted the dolly so you took it. Now you and your friend feel sad and angry. Next time you can say please can I have a turn.” There is no shaming or reprimand, and to watch these skills develop over the year is most rewarding. It takes time, consistency and patience. Our staff have it all.
Self-Help Skills – The year of “I can do it.” They can, they want to, they are determined and we are there to encourage independence and help them develop the necessary skills. We work with you on toilet training and our success rate is good. We have an advantage, once one child is trained, they all want to follow.
Fine and gross motor skills – Emphasis is placed on developing the basis of these skills. Daily activities encourage the strengthening of both the small and large muscle groups. Our outdoor play equipment is designed with this in mind and the children take part in the Little Champs programme bi weekly. Drawing, painting, cutting, construction toys, all build up the small muscles in the hands.

Younger Group

3-4 Years

At this age the children enter our nursery school and their cognitive development takes on more focus. We continue our social and emotional skills development based on our principles of conscious discipline, as well as self help skills to foster independence and self esteem building. Cognitive skills are developed in accordance with the national curriculum and the demands of the primary schools we feed into. We work on the following skills and more.

Skills that Children Will Learn:

Auditory skills – these skills are extremely important and include, following instructions, auditory perceptual skills, comprehension and listening attentitively.
Literacy and language – these include clear pronounciation, vocabulary building and correct grammar. An awareness of signs, logos and letters in a very informal manner.
Numeracy skills – these include counting to at least 20, counting concrete objects, counting backwards from 5 and building on this and number recognition to at least 5 , but often higher.

Middle Group

4-5 Years

This age group is the middle group in nursery school. As in all the other groups social, emotional and self help skills are important and require continued guidance.

Skills that Children Will Learn:

Fine motor skills – these skills are becoming more precise and children are taught over the course of the year to write their first name and maintain the correct pencil grip. They are cutting independently. Their pictures and their body image drawings gain detail and more colour.
Auditory perception – some of these benchmarks include following three instructions, repeating a minimum of four words or random numbers, developing rhyming skills and recalling details of stories.
Literacy and language skills – includes speaking in more complex sentences, using increased vocabulary, articulating clearly and with correct pronunciation as well as developing confidence to relate news and relay messages.
Numeracy skills and number value skills – gain meaning and understanding. Recognising numbers from 1 to 10 or more, counting concrete objects at least to 10,counting backwards from 10, rote counting to 30, sorting and classifying and naming the basic shapes.
Visual perceptual skills – include recognising their name and their friends names, completing at least a 36 piece puzzle, recalling 3 or 4 seen objects and copying sequences, patterns of colours or shapes.

Grade R

5-6 Years Old

Here we are in our final year of nursery school, grade R. We do not lose focus at all on social, emotional and self help skills. These are enhanced on an “as they happen basis.” Coaching children through their feelings and how to regulate their behaviour is modelled and coached continually. We are at the pre school readiness point and we cover the curriculum in a fun and playful manner, hands on, lots of movement, experimenting, self discovery with the use of carefully chosen concrete apparatus, games and other educational aids.

Skills that Children Will Learn:

Fine motor skills – becomes pre writing skills development. Tracing, drawing patterns, using different materials to form letters and developing accuracy and neatness in cutting and colouring.
Auditory perception skills – are built on and includes listening isolating the letter sounds first at the beginning of a word, then end and moving on to medial sounds and finally blending. (phonics) Comprehension, rhyming, more complex instructions, vocabulary, grammar continue to be built on.
Letter recognition skills – are taught through a multisensory approach, using Letterland. We do not teach the letters in sequence, rather in an order that facilitates the earlier development of phonic blending.
Numeracy skills – an understanding of numerical concepts grows in leaps and bounds at this age and the development is amazing. Counting to at least 120 but generally we go way beyond with much excitement! We count in 10’s, 5’s and 2’s and look for these patterns on a number chart to foster understanding. Addition and subtraction are introduced and we make use of a variety of maths equipment to ensure a thorough understanding of all concepts is established. Patterning and graph work are also taught