Pre-Primary Approach & Philosophy

APPROACH & PHILOSOPHY (PRI-PRIMARY SECTION)

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The Pre-Primary Section at Bay View Academy uses the High Scope method of education. Active learning is at the center of the curriculum. Active learning means acting directly on objects and interacting with people, ideas and events. Children construct their own understanding of the world around them.

Children in the High Scope environment are encouraged to follow their own initiative, to explore and engage in experiences that are of personal interest, ask and answer questions, set their own goals, solve problems that get in the way of accomplishing those goals, and generate new ideas to test. As they carry out their intentions with the support of interested and involved adults, children naturally engage in activities that present important learning opportunities. Key areas of development are creative representation, language and literacy, initiative, social relations, movement and music, science, number sense and operation, geometry, algebra, data analysis and measurement.

Whether children are playing with sand and water, exploring with eyedroppers and coloured water, or dancing with streamers, they are talking with other children and with adults, making choices about what materials to use and how to use them. Adults, in turn, support children in a variety of ways, such as playing as partners with them, helping them solve problems, and providing opportunities for further learning experiences.

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Our annual report cards fully reflect the development of your child. All young children need and can benefit from assessments that identify the full range of their developing abilities, in contrast to assessments limited to traditional academic areas. Constructive assessments are most meaningful when conducted by classroom teachers who record observations about each child as part of their daily routine. The varied observations are guided by a framework that identifies levels of development and provides a corresponding scoring chart.

The process of gathering data for completing such an assessment takes place over the entire year during the programme’s normal course and requires no change in the children’s daily routine. At the heart of the assessment in this programme is the process of collecting information about children’s important behaviours and activities by taking brief notes that we call anecdotes and by collecting portfolio items.

Anecdotes are descriptions of episodes that highlight children’s behaviours.
Portfolio items are samples of work.

We hope this provides you with a more in-depth understanding of the educational experience a child engages in the Pre-Primary Section of Bay View Academy.