Nursery School
International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme
Overview
Our Nursery School offers high quality education and care in a happy, interactive environment that helps our learners develop holistically. Early learning in our Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a holistic learning experience that integrates socio-emotional, physical and cognitive development. In our PYP classrooms, learning takes place in dynamic environments that promote play, discovery and exploration.
The PYP in Nursery School nurtures and develops young learners as caring, active participants in a lifelong journey of learning. The PYP offers an inquiry-based, transdisciplinary curriculum framework that builds conceptual understanding.
The PYP curriculum focuses on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, encouraging learners to take responsibility and ownership of their learning, both in school and in the world beyond. The PYP offers a transformative experience for learners, learners and whole school communities and delivers excellent outcomes by providing an education that is engaging, relevant, challenging and significant.
Learn more about IB here.
Curriculum
Our curriculum is based on the premise that learners are agents of their own learning and partners in the learning process. It prioritizes learners and their relationships to build a strong learning community. Our Nursery learners use their initiative to take responsibility and ownership of their learning. By learning through inquiry and reflecting on their own learning, they develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and the attributes of the IB Learner profile.
We focus on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and beyond. The early years in the PYP are transformative experiences for learners and deliver excellent outcomes by providing an education that is engaging, relevant, challenging and significant. The subject areas in the PYP are:
- Language
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social studies
- Arts
- Personal, social and physical education
As children grow they will be supported to develop skills in four specific areas.
- Literacy
- Mathematics
- Understanding the world
- Expressive arts and design
Transdisciplinary Themes
Guided by six transdisciplinary themes of global significance, learners broaden their learning by developing their conceptual understandings, strengthening their knowledge and skills across, between, and beyond subject areas. In Nursery School, learners are engaged in four of the following six transdisciplinary themes:
- Who we are: Inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; person, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; and human relationships.
- Where we are in place and time: Inquiry into our orientation in place and time; personal histories; the discoveries and explorations of humankind; and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations.
- How we express ourselves: Inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values.
- How the world works: Inquiry into the natural world and its laws, the interaction between the natural world and human societies; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
- How we organize ourselves: Inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; and their impact on humankind and the environment.
- Sharing the planet: Inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and other living things; access to equal opportunities; and peace and conflict resolution.
Useful documents:
Early Years Foundation Stage, GHA Nursery: A Guide for Parents
Positive Behaviour Policy
We take a positive approach to managing and encouraging positive behaviours. We also encourage and assist children to be able to resolve conflicts that might occur among them following a six step process:
- Approach the situation calmly
- Acknowledge children’s feelings
- Gather information- What is the problem?
- Restate the problem
- Ask for solutions and choose one together
- Be prepared to give follow up support