An outstanding, child-centred, international education for 3, 4 and 5 year olds

Gillian Latiff	Kate Gunn	Sajeda Rashid

 

Our Early Childhood Programme provides the best preparation for future success at IST and other international schools.We offer a developmentally appropriate, challenging curriculum that involves children in inquiry, critical thinking and active learning. Our approach to teaching reading, writing and mathematical concepts has been developed from research-based best practices.

 

We offer a self-contained, clean, safe, inviting and stimulating learning environment, which is well-resourced and especially designed for young children. In addition, children benefit from full use of Elementary School facilities, including the swimming pool,computer labs and Library.They also have access to specialist teachers and resources for Physical Education,Swimming,Art,Music,Information Technology and Kiswahili, and fully-qualified school nurses,and school counselors.

Our school population represents a wide range of races, cultures and languages. These are shared, embraced and celebrated as part of our daily programme.

From what age can my child be enrolled in the ECC?

3 years old on or before 31st August 2007—EC1 place in family class
4 years old on or before 31st August 2007—EC2 place in family class

Our family classes combine two age ranges to facilitate a smoother transition into school and to allow children to benefit from working at their own level in a group context.

What will a typical day be like in the Early Childhood Classes?

The school day starts at 7.30am, but the classrooms are open from 7.00am. Children have some simple routines to follow in the mornings, but can also use this time to share an activity with their parents or let off some early morning steam outdoors. The EC day ends at 12.30pm. A shorter session can be negotiated for children who need more time to settle, and supervision is available at our Lunch Club for children with older siblings in the Elementary School who finish their day at 1.15pm.

During teaching time, children work in the classroom or the EC playground on maths and language activities, their unit of inquiry, creative and imaginative work, and a range of other activities. They have opportunities to work in a large group, a variety of smaller groups, in pairs and individually, as well as time to initiate their own learning by choosing where they wish to work. Each classroom is organised into learning centres. These are carefully set up to promote learning, even when children are making independent choices about their activity.

There are also timetabled specialist lessons that include Physical Education, Swimming, Kiswahili, Art, Music, Library and Information Communication Technology. Children go to other areas of the school to work with specialist teachers, or the teachers might come to the classroom and work with small groups.

The EC day is designed to ensure that children have opportunities to be active, quiet times, and times to eat and drink. As well as a regular snack time, one of the special routines we have in ECC is fruit circle. This is a social time, as well as a learning opportunity.

What will my child learn?

The Early Childhood Classes use the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme as the basis of its curriculum. This means that all teaching and learning is child-centred, and engages children in active and inquiry based learning. Much of the curriculum is covered through units of inquiry, which break down the barriers between traditional subject areas, and help children to understand important concepts through study of a meaningful central idea. The range of units studied ensure that children study a broad and balanced curriculum, and are organised under six trans-disciplinary themes . Some of the units studied in the Early Childhood Classes are listed below by theme.

Who we are

Me and You Central idea: Every day I learn more about who I am and what I can do.

I Am What I Am Central idea: We learn about why we are special by exploring our families and life experiences.

 Where we are in time and place

Where We Come From, Where We Live Now Central idea: We are from all over the world. Now we are all living together in Dar es Salaam.

Time For A Change Central idea: Transitions and change affect us all at some time in our lives.

How we express ourselves

Why Do We Write? Central idea: There are many different reasons for writing in real life.

Haditihi Hadithi Central idea: Stories have a structure and can be presented in a variety of ways.

Express Yourself! Central idea: People communicate their feelings and ideas through language, art and music.

How the world works

Shadows and Reflections Central idea: Light creates shadows and reflections.

Plan to Make Central idea: When people make things they have to solve many problems and make decisions.

How Does Your Garden Grow? Central idea: People need to care for plants in order to successfully grow food.

How we organise ourselves

Me and My Classroom Central idea: Classrooms are organised to help us learn and live together.

On The Move Central idea: Every journey has a purpose and has to be planned for.

How we share the planet

My Pet, Your Pet Central idea: It’s our responsibility to take care of animals.

Under The Sea Central idea: The sea provides sea creatures with what they need to live.

What about reading and writing?

Children are learning about reading and writing long before they come to school. They watch adults around them, mimic them, and make sense of what they see and hear. They understand that books contain stories or information; they can read the logo on their favourite cereal box; they ‘play’ at writing.

Instead of treating reading and writing as something they “can’t” do and need to learn at school, we start by evaluating and encouraging their natural understandings about language and literacy, and build on these. As soon as they arrive at IST, children are treated as readers and writers. We use a continuum to track children’s progress in reading and writing, and to help us plan the next step to take for each child. Within the context of writing for real reasons, children learn about sounds, letters, words and sentences, and talk about what they have written.

Reading for pleasure is a high priority in the Early Childhood Classes. From enjoyment comes motivation, and children are encouraged to retell stories using the pictures, spot sounds and words they recognise, and guess what will happen next. These are all important reading skills that help children move towards independence.

What about math?

When working mathematically in the EC classes, children work with real objects to build an understanding of sorting, classifying and patterning. These skills are the basis for understanding of all mathematical concepts. The children have extensive opportunities to work with manipulatives before beginning to record what they have learned using symbols.

Our math programme is guided by a range of benchmarks in the following areas:

• number
• data handling
• shape and space
• measurement
• pattern and function
• working mathematically.