FOUR YEAR OLD PROGRAMME
We often get asked how we support children in getting ready for primary school. How do we teach them their ‘ABC’s and 123’s?’ and there is the occasional question thrown our way in regards to whether we run a ‘four year old or school prep’ programme. The response that we have to these queries is often met with surprise and astonishment. As a team at Treehouse we are very clear about how we view ‘school readiness’ and how this is implemented into our programme and the environment.
This view is underpinned by a number of aspects which include building on children’s social competencies, developing independence, and developing good attitudes towards risk taking and learning.
Why is developing social competencies important for getting ready for school?
Developing positive social competencies supports children in working well with others, it helps with self-regulation and communicating feelings. All these skills are welcomed warmly when children enter their new entrant classroom.
Play is something that we celebrate and don’t take for granted as we know that children use play to explore many different concepts, life skills and learning areas. It is disappointing when we hear comments about how children are ‘just playing’ so we will defend play and its greatness by explaining the importance of it, how this supports learning and preparation for school.
Play involves working together, concentrating and following through with tasks, being creative, exploring language and self-expression, building on confidence, developing gross and fine motor skills to name just a few things.
One of the biggest and most frustrating comments that we hear every so often is, ‘Now my child is heading off to school to do real learning!’ At Treehouse we have children who are living and breathing meaningful learning every day and we are proud to be providing them with these opportunities.
This is the time when children are developing lifelong learning skills, attitudes and ways of being that will support them for many years to come.
We take our jobs of fostering this very seriously, we are professionals who care deeply about what we do and in no way want to stifle our children’s desire to learn about and question their world. Yes we want our children to know how to write their names, recognise colours, shapes and how to count to ten. However more importantly we want them to feel empowered and valued and we whole heartedly try our hardest to accomplish this.
“The child-led programme encourages children to develop a love of learning within a positive social environment. Teachers place high value on children’s knowledge and heritages. The centre manager and teacher continually review practices and the programme in the light of current research and best early childhood education practice.” Education Review Office 2015.