Early Childhood
We have three Early Childhood classes all facilitated by mother tongue or bilingual English Homeroom teachers. In Early Childhood, students have ‘Atelier’ classes with a specialist teacher, Ms. Saskia, who is Reggio Emilia trained, and focuses on music and art. Students also receive physical education lessons with Ms. Roksana, who builds key motor skills through many forms of play. Apart from our youngest students who are aged two, each grade level four units of inquiry. These different units help students build an understanding of themselves and the world around them and are facilitated simultaneously to take advantage of student driven inquiry, changing of the seasons and the developments of the students as they progress through the year.
Learning and teaching in our Early Years is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approaches. The Reggio Emilia approach is highly focused on a few key philosophical ideas and goals:
- Children arrive to school with many ways to communicate and express their ideas and it is our responsibility to create an environment in which these ‘languages’ can flourish
- Children learn through play and developing social situations that develop relational learning is key to the development of language skills, social skills and learning dispositions such as curiosity, collaboration and autonomy.
- Children are the protagonists of their learning and the role of teachers is to listen, identify, promote and project a child’s learning beyond that which they could achieve themselves. Teachers achieve this through carefully planning and changing the learning environment, which is considered as the ‘3rd Teacher’.
- Creativity is the highest form of thinking and by using open-ended resources, connecting and extending projects, young children have the agency to build and create. Ateliers and atelierista develop resources that stimulate conversation and exploration.
- Reggio documentation of children’s learning provides a reflective tool for the children, a communication platform for parents, a learning tool for teachers to extend child driven projects and is evidence of learning.
Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach, wrote a poem that is at the centre of the Reggio Emilia philosophical approach to learning:
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.
Loris Malaguzzi
(translated by Lella Gandini)
The child, as a human being, has a hundred languages: a hundred ways of thinking, expressing themself, understanding, meeting the other through a thought that intertwines and does not separate the dimensions of experience. The hundred languages are a metaphor of the extraordinary potential of children, of cognitive and creative processes, of the multiple forms with which life manifests itself and knowledge is built.
Coupled with our Reggio Emilia approach to learning in the Early Childhood we facilitate four units of inquiry in each Early Childhood class. These units are conceptually driven and each address topics and concepts critical for the developmental progression of young learners.
Early Childhood Grade levels:
Spring/Nursery
Our 2 and 3 year old students collaborate together in a shared space with the support of one Italian language teacher and one English language teacher. This combined class allows flexibility for our youngest students to start school when they and their parents are ready. Our bilingual approach to the teaching staff supports each child’s individual language development profile at this early learning stage. We have highly experienced and qualified educators who facilitate play, songs, poems and creative experiences to develop intrinsic curiosity. Older students have the opportunity to become protagonists and leaders within this learning space. These young learners start their educational journey in a safe, welcoming, fun, calm and stimulating environment.
The focus for our youngest two year old students is on the development of Reggio Emilia inspired values, mindsets and attributes such as curiosity, creativity, social interaction, building relationships and communication. As the students turn 3 years old we start to introduce units of inquiry that are conceptually driven and child centred. From a simple topical perspective, these units can be described as celebrations, play, school, materials, friendships, emotions, homes and life cycles.
Reception
Our 4 year old students begin to progress fast in their language learning in both English and Italian as they are exposed to more English phonics teaching, vocabulary development and build their confidence with oral communication. We start to facilitate school trips to expose and extend learning environments and use SeeSaw as a window into the classroom for parents to connect with daily learning experiences. The four units of inquiry in Reception class focus on communities, imagery, light and dark and ecosystems.
Prep
Our 5 year old students continue their English phonics understanding and complete a comprehensive study to be able to match spoken sounds with written letters and combinations of letters. In Prep, Italian lessons are introduced for three hours a week. Facilitated by a mother tongue, highly experienced Italian teacher, the students start their written language learning in Italian and English. The Prep class takes trips, invites guest speakers and continues to develop autonomy and relational learning through four units of inquiry into stories, senses, food systems and measurement.