Our educational aims and philosophy
General information
Parents recognise the importance of young children experiencing the joy and freedom of a happy childhood, yet also want to prepare them for the increasingly demanding world that they will be entering due to the enormous social, economic, and technological developments of recent years.
Unfortunately, the carefree childhood that many of us remember – with its sense of community, extended family, and safety, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Owing to the demands and pressures of the changes in our social structure (where many children are now growing up in two-career or single parent families) the importance of our children’s schools has increased.
However, although parents want to make a responsible decision regarding their child’s education, the many different types of early childhood schools and philosophies often lead to parental confusion where making the right choice is not a simple task!
To complicate matters further, entry into top primary schools – public or private – is often dependent on whether the child has reached certain developmental goals that would enable him/her to cope confidently with formal education. This again, highlights the importance of an enriched pre- school curriculum and environment.
Our educational aims and philosophy
A confident child with good self-esteem will be able to cope with life’s many challenges! We believe in providing a stimulating, happy environment where our pupils are motivated and enthusiastic about wanting to learn, to reason, to think, and create.
Learning must be fun! We encourage our pupils to involve themselves in all aspects of our programme and to discover and learn at their own pace. Our aim is the development of the total child – physical, emotional, social, and cognitive.
Our Programme:
Our teachers are professionally qualified to teach pre-primary children and dedicated to developing the potential of each pupil. We do not follow any one specific curriculum but rather combine what we consider to be the most successful elements of a variety of different childhood philosophies.
Our curriculum consists of a combination of structured and free-play activities. We do not believe in a formal learning environment or putting too much pressure on pre-schoolers to meet the demands of inappropriate programmes. It is through play that children learn to solve problems and interact with others.
In the classroom, although our teachers play a vital role in encouraging participation and directing activities, we also focus on the theory that children need active involvement with people, materials, ideas and events in order to learn optimally. Programmes are carefully planned to teach age-appropriate concepts and skills, and to involve every child. Much emphasis is placed on hands-on learning. A wide variety of quality equipment is available to our pupils to develop necessary pre-school skills.
Our integrated curriculum is theme related. It includes the development of the following skills: perception (visual and auditory); language and literacy; numeracy; life-skills; design and technology; natural science; creative art; music and movement; physical education; and general knowledge.
The teachers also encourage social skills such as co-operation, communication, independence, initiative, perseverance in completing tasks, and responsibility.
Effective, sympathetic ways are continually sought to deal with discipline problems.
The curriculum in our 5 classes at Fleming Pre-Primary and the 4 classes at the Early Learning Centre, will differ due to age and developmental differences. Our curriculum includes many activities aimed at developing the skills necessary for confident entry into formal education.
Early intervention
Children today are facing many new challenges such as: increased learning problems, increased discipline and behavioural difficulties, increased need for language and remedial instruction, and an increase in complex social problems which may require the intervention of a therapist. The reasons for this are many and varied but are often as simple as our children do not get to spend time outside ‘climbing trees.’
At Fleming, we are fortunate to have a well- equipped therapy room and access to excellent therapists, who guide us very professionally in this regard. Should therapy for your child be suggested, please be guided by your teacher and these professional therapists, or even an outside therapist of your own choosing. Early Intervention services can change a child’s developmental path and reduce the need for specialised instructional support during their foundation phase years and can be effective in helping many children make progress toward achieving age- appropriate developmental milestones.
Children receiving early intervention may show potential for INCREASED ACADEMIC READINESS and be better able to interact with their peers.
Anti bullying policy
