Early Years 3-4

Our Early Childhood Centre adopts the “Te Whariki” curriculum from New Zealand and is more effective in a multi-age setting.
“Te Whariki” principles state that:

• Early childhood curriculum empowers the child to learn and grow
• Early childhood curriculum reflects the holistic way children learn and grow
• The wider world of family and community is an integral part of early childhood curriculum
• Children learn through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places and things.

Class sizes and adult-to-student ratios for homerooms are 16 students in a class, and are decreased further in specialist classes for greater personalisation of learning. Classrooms are staffed with two educators (one Teacher, one Teaching Assistant) with a ratio of one teacher to eight students. Classroom educators join specialist classes, to create an adult-to-student ratio of one teacher to four students in PE, Music, Art, Host Country Studies, and Library lessons.

Bringing children of different grade levels together to learn is more of a natural arrangement. We continue to learn with and from people older and younger than us throughout our lives. Older children can thrive when given responsibilities and asked to show younger children how to go about something. And when a child teaches another child, they are reinforcing their knowledge as well. Students in multi-age classrooms also develop a strong sense of community through play and learning alongside older and younger peers.

Learning is not linear and does not happen in discreet age bands. Learning alongside younger peers gives students the freedom to develop at their own pace and not feel rushed by a set of singular grade level expectations. Children do not feel left behind if they are struggling with a concept or skill. Every child develops at their own rate. Teachers observe students for signs of ‘readiness’ in acquiring skills and provide plenty of opportunities for students to practice skills towards mastery in a variety of ways.

In order to focus the instruction for all of our students, especially for our older students, children have opportunities to work in one-to-one settings and small groups; really personalizing the instruction. Teachers work with a tangible set of social emotional, cognitive outcomes, including a focus on developing early literacy and numeracy skills. Students engage in a range of play based activities that develop key skills like phonological awareness, fine motor skills as well as activities that will develop their number sense and special awareness.

These activities support our student’s transition through our Early Years programme and into our Kindergarten.

A child’s progress is tracked weekly, and is accessible on our online platform, Seesaw. Every week children are exposed to open-ended provocations that are linked to the “Te Whariki” Learning Outcomes, as well as through Pedagogical Documentation. Documentation serves multiple functions and groups:

• It is for the children; when children see their own work, and their processes of learning they become inspired and empowered.
• Documentation is also for the families to make the work of their child visible.
• Documentation that is made visible to colleagues allows for the opening of reflective dialogue to occur between professionals, which creates a culture of transparency and inspiration. It also allows space for the teacher to discover new insight into the children’s interests, and processes of learning, propelling the learning into more in-depth ventures.

We believe that an 08:10-14:00 school day is long enough for 3 and 4 year old children, who are busy growing their bodies and their brains at an incredibly fast pace. Going home at 14:00 allows children to relax in a home environment and emphasises the importance of play, family, relaxation and engaging in non-school activities. As your child’s first teachers, parents play an incredibly important role as partners-in-play with your children. We encourage families to embrace this time in a child’s early life to spend time at home with parents and caregivers. This time and this space is irreplaceable.