Our curriculum
Our curriculum
Children will be exposed to the following key areas of learning, with a focus on character building (through manners, values and virtues) incorporated across all.
These learnings are self-correcting, allowing children to discover themselves whether they have completed the task accurately.
Practical Life
These purposeful activities help children to develop motor control and coordination, while building self-regulation, and a sense of responsibility. They help to build self-care skills and encourage children to care for their environment (not only the materials they use, but the people and places within it).
These include how to push in their chair, how to prepare a snack, how to wash their hands and dishes, how to serve their friends and the like.
Sensorial
These activities allow children to refine each of their five senses. They perfect their fine motor skills, visual and auditory senses and develop coordination and the ability to order and classify. Their cognitive skills of attention, memory, comparing, judging and thinking are enhanced.
Language
Specific, hands-on tactile materials are used to develop children’s phonetic awareness in a sequential way. This enables them to encode and decode sounds which provides the foundation for the development of their writing and reading skills.
Mathematics
This learning area is developed with the use of concrete materials that help children to grasp the idea of quantities before they progress on to more abstract concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and fractions at their own pace.
Cultural Studies
Materials in this area provide children with an opportunity to explore their curiosity of different world ideas and the natural and physical worlds around them. This teaches them about the size of our planet and the diverse cultures and identities within it.
It includes Geography, Zoology, Botany and Science and enables children to develop their sense of belonging, not only in our diverse country, but in the wider world.
Specialist Programmes
In addition to these key areas of learning, our Specialist Programme includes visits from facilitators teaching creative dance, ball games and gymnastics as well as story tellers, musicians and a potter.
Transition to School
With its location adjacent to that of Ficino School, opportunities for interaction and a focus on a ‘Transition to School’ programme feature strongly for older children as they near school age. The Preschool and School curriculums work collaboratively.
The experiences in this programme are a combination of teaching specific skills in preparation for the Ficino School environment and children’s choices.
Our Preschooler’s are already familiar with the school grounds; often visiting the hall to observe plays and take music lessons or have lunch in the lunchroom. They are also familiar with both the junior teachers and students and are excited to move on to ‘big’ school.