Our Philosophy
The early years matter more than people think.
It shapes how we set up the rooms and how we spend the day. A great deal of who a person becomes is laid down before they turn six, and we treat these years accordingly.
What we believe
Six things we hold to
Every child has their own clock
Children move at their own speed. We watch each one closely and meet them where they are, without measuring them against the child next to them. When you let readiness come on its own, it usually brings confidence with it.
A question beats a memorised answer
A memorised answer is gone by next week. A question a child genuinely cares about can stay with them for years. So we spend our time getting children to wonder about things, and we take every 'why' seriously.
Feelings are part of the day
Naming what you feel, sorting out a squabble, waiting your turn, comforting a friend who is crying. We teach this as carefully as letters and numbers, because a child who is upset cannot learn much anyway.
Play is serious work
A child building a tower, arguing over who gets to be the doctor, or pouring water from one cup to the next is doing real thinking. We guard playtime carefully, because at this age play is how children work the world out.
Children learn by handling things
Long before they learn from being told, children learn with their hands and their senses. So the things in our rooms are real and meant to be picked up, poured, stacked and taken apart.
School should feel safe and happy
No child learns well while they are anxious. So the first job, before any letter or number, is to make school feel warm and safe. Everything else sits on top of that.
The Six Cs
What the years add up to
Much of what children practise here, day after day, comes down to six things. We call them the six Cs.
How it looks in practice
Prepared rooms, guided discovery
A morning here is a set of things laid out for children to choose from. The teachers set up the room, watch what each child does, and step in at the point where a little help goes a long way.
- Learning through play
- Materials set out around the room, with no single right way to use them.
- Learning by doing
- Cooking, gardening, building, mixing. The kind of knowledge that sticks because they made it themselves.
- Individual attention
- Small groups, and a real record kept of how each child is getting on.
- Emotional wellbeing
- A day that runs to a calm, predictable rhythm.
- Social development
- Mixed activities where sharing, leading and listening happen every day.
“The child we hope to send on to Std. I is one who still loves finding things out.”
See the Programs