Early Years
Here at Heritage International School (HIS), we pride ourselves on our Early Years provision. A child starting school can be a daunting experience for parents and children so our experienced staff ensure the process is a positive and happy one.
Foundation of Education
We use the Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework (EYFS) as our base for the opportunities and provision that we provide to children in Early Years. There is a great emphasis on learning through direct, first hand experiences in a play based environment. This allows children to develop the skills needed in preparation for their education in Kindergarten.
At HIS, our Early Years education is based upon the following aims and principles:
Building on what your child already knows and can do. An objective-led planning approach where learning is taught through the children’s play and based on rigorous tracking and daily observations. The use of topics and current trends taken from the children’s interests are used to plan the learning and skill development.
Delivery of the curriculum is led through purposeful, planned play opportunities and enhancements of provision, where adults observe and intervene with higher order questioning and engagement to extend the learning taking place. Adult-led activities that introduce new skills and extend learning. Content, provision and resources matched to the needs of the current cohort of children which are changed throughout the year in line with the development of the children.
A well developed and nurturing environment where the children can independently access resources as and when they require and feel safe to take risks and make mistakes. Free-flow learning where children have equal access to the indoors and outdoors. A positive, safe environment where children have an ‘I can’ attitude and take risks and challenge themselves.
Embedding children’s personal, social and emotional development so children are happy in school and making friends. A happy child is happy to learn!
Our curriculum is based upon 7 broad areas of learning; each child’s progress and development is assessed at the end of their Junior Kindergarten against set Early Learning Goals. These areas of learning include:
The Prime Areas
1. Personal, Social and Emotional Development through which children gain confidence and self-awareness, the ability to manage their feelings and behavior and learn about building effective relationships with others.
2. Communication and Language through which children learn about listening, attention, understanding and speaking.
3. Physical Development which emphasizes gross and fine motor skills in moving and handling, as well as health and self-care.
The Specific Areas
4. Literacy: Early reading and writing skills, explicit daily teaching of phonics, recognizing common and irregular words, reading and understanding simple sentences and talking about what they have read; children will begin to use their phonic knowledge to build and write words and construct simple sentences.
5. Mathematics: Based around counting reliably from 1-20, understanding number order and beginning simple addition and subtraction; children will also experience solving mathematical problems by talking about shapes, weight, capacity, time, money, halving and measuring and comparing everyday objects.
6. Understanding the world: Enables children to base their learning on what they understand of the world around them through talking about past and present events within their own families, being aware of the differences and similarities between others and among families, communities and traditions; children will observe the differences in their environment, learn about plants and animals and talk about changes. They will also use a range of different technologies, selecting and using them for different purposes.
7. Expressive Arts and Design: Children will sing songs and create their own music and dance. They explore a range of materials, tools and techniques to look at different colors, design and texture in their artwork and are given opportunities to be imaginative through art, music, role play and stories.