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Lower School Year Review
LOWER SCHOOL
YEAR REVIEW
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We’ve had another fantastic year of learning through play in Early Years. We were delighted to welcome back our existing families and also proud to welcome over 70 new families to the Little Lions Early Years Centre this year.
We started Term 1 in August, dapting to the ‘new normal’, particularly with our children showing impressive perseverance, resilience and determination. Halfway through the school year we moved to a period of online learning again, utilising new technologies and innovative strategies to maintain a healthy balance of screen time. Once again, our children and families engaged with this period with such positivity, enthusiasm and hard work. As we returned to school, a big focus and priority for us was to acknowledge the period of closure, celebrate the successes of online learning and to support our children in returning back to school.
A key focus for us is to constantly provide our children with the very best levels of care, nurture and emotional support. We recognise that we are in a very privileged position in working with the youngest children at Harrow Bangkok. Research in neuroscience tells us that in order to learn well, young children need to feel safe, secure and loved.
Our very youngest children join us in Lion Cubs between the ages of 18 months and 2.5 years old. In both our Toddler Only and Parent Toddler classes, we prioritise the development of children’s confidence to ‘have a go’ and the opportunity to practice new skills. These early stages of instilling a growth mindset help our children with facing challenges and help develop a positive attitude towards their learning. We pride ourselves on providing a stimulating indoor and outdoor environment for our Lion Cubs with resources and opportunities to play, learn and explore.
Singing is something our Lion Cubs absolutely love to do! This year, we have had lots of fun learning new songs, reciting our favourites and having fun with sounds and noises we hear all around us. These early stages of sound recognition are the building blocks for the process of learning to read, later on in their development.
In Pre Nursery, we maintain a high level of focus on the prime areas of personal, social and emotional development. Children develop their skills with making friends and building meaningful relationships, developing their confidence and interests. They also begin to understand their different emotions and how they can regulate these.
It is so wonderful to see the children begin to develop friendships, but this does also bring with it the challenge of how to solve conflicts that arise. A lot of teaching in Pre Nursery is focused on supporting the children with how to deal with friendship challenges in the correct way. The ultimate aim is to help children to learn how to self-regulate their feelings and emotions.
Through our thematic, topic based curriculum, we have been developing our children’s High Performance Learning Skills. The children have had opportunities to think about different problems and how we might find solutions to these, to link their learning to new situations and come up with ideas of their own. Creative thinking is something that we love to support our children to develop and explore as they immerse themselves into our environments and different topics. Within our learning environments, children are given lots of opportunities to explore their thinking and develop different ideas.
LOWER SCHOOL
YEAR REVIEW
As the children continue their learning journey into Nursery, personal, social and emotional development continues to be a key focus. In Nursery, we work hard to support our children to become aware of what it means to be independent. Each half-term, the children explore their activities through a range of different topics. These have included ‘Walking in the Jungle’ and ‘Once Upon a Time’. In Nursery, we continue to develop the children’s understanding of High Performance Learning (HPL) by teaching them about how they learn and exploring various methods within their learning, whilst taking risks and showing resilience when faced with challenges. Our outdoor free flow areas support this by providing space to explore physical, sensory and natural materials. There have been some truly memorable times throughout the school year including the children’s amazing Christmas performances. Albeit a very different format this year with the classes being separated, but as usual, the children did an incredible job and made us all very proud.
The Nursery Year is a pivotal time for the learning and development of the children. They accomplish and experience so much and grow in many ways.
The final stage in your child’s time in Early Years is our Reception Year. This is an important stage where children continue to learn through our play based approach, with a gradual shift to more adult led activities. As children reach the end of the Reception Year, we work tirelessly to ensure they
are fully prepared for the transition into Year 1 where they start the Pre Prep phase. Throughout the year, the children have grown so much in confidence and independence as well as socially and emotionally.
In Reception, High Performance Learning has been an area of focus. In order to develop the children’s cognitive awareness, we have introduced a visible thinking routine called ‘see, think, wonder’. This routine is a simple technique to help children to describe what they see, discuss their thoughts and ask questions. It has been fantastic to hear our Reception children using the language of thinking, with confidence. They are now prepared to take their thinking skills to the next level of metacognition.
This year, we have celebrated many different events with themed dress up days for Loy Kratong, Halloween, Chinese New Year and World Book Day. A huge highlight of the Reception Year was using the Recital Hall for the very first time to perform our Christmas Nativity Show. The children were extremely brave to perform in a new setting and showed us just what they are capable of. Not only did the children perform a Christmas show but also entertained us with five wonderful Class Assemblies. These wonderful experiences will be remembered for many years to come.
We are so proud of the children and all they have achieved this year. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you all and witnessing the amazing progress our Little Lions have made in all of the Year Groups. To our Reception children, we will miss you very much but we are confident that you will continue to enjoy, achieve and succeed as you move onward with your learning journey into Pre Prep.
Thank you all for an incredible year,
Ste Foster Acting Head of Early Years
LOWER SCHOOL
YEAR REVIEW
Schools are brilliant. They are places which bring out the absolute best in people. They are full of dynamism at every corner. Teachers leading learning, Early Years practitioners facilitating talk with their children enquiry-based projects being developed by students in collaboration with adults. Schools are exceptional places – they bring out the best in people. Sports teachers leading games, coaches cheering on their team, advisors supporting the next hour of practice to ensure that those who are there are striving to be the best that they can be.
Schools are creative places – they bring out the best in people. Music teachers leading mini-concert, computing teachers supporting the next level of coding, art teachers exposing children to a work of art and seeing them replicate it in their own unique style. Teachers are creative beings at
heart, and it is their creative ideas to engage pupils in learning and support their individual needs which allows so many to flourish.
Schools are supportive places – they bring out the best in people. When times are hard, teachers are there. When problems occur, teachers are there. When extra work is required, teachers are there. Partnerships and the way we support each other within education are key to success – student and teacher; teacher and teaching assistant; parent and teacher – we must work together to allow all to thrive.
Lower School is brilliant. It brings out the best in its students, teachers and parents by allowing them… well… to do all of the above and so much more!
Mike Godwin Acting Head of Lower School
LOWER SCHOOL
YEAR REVIEW
What an incredible year it has been in Pre Prep. This year has created challenges like no other. We have gone from learning in school as we know best, to online learning and back to school with restricted measures in place. But none of this has slowed down what we do in Pre Prep and what we do is wonder, care, create, go for it, respect and practise!
Pre Prep has as always been a hotbed of activity. We have had mini-concerts, sports days, expeditions, class assemblies, guest readers, school trips, Christmas concerts and lots more. Our Leadership groups have continued to flourish, with our Head Boy and Girl, Deputy Head Boy and Girl and House Captains, writing and leading assemblies. Our Global Leaders, leading us to the incredible accomplishment of attaining our Green Flag Award. We have had Play Leaders training and supporting our pupils in play times, Digital Leaders upskilling and supporting the already amazing level of technology in Pre Prep and Library Leaders inspiring us to pick up a book and develop a love of reading. And whilst all of this was happening, our School Council was making the school a better place for each and every pupil.
What makes Pre Prep so special for me? Well, because all of the above should be the cherry on top, but not in Pre Prep; it is just what we do! I haven’t even mentioned the absolutely world class learning that happens each day, the smiles on the playground each morning, the questions our pupils ask each day or the absolute unbridled love of learning that our pupils show. Our wonderful building is alive on a daily basis with memories that will last our pupils a lifetime, develop them to be our future leaders and inspire them to be the best they can possibly be.
Thanks to all of our pupils, parents and staff for another wonderful year. I cannot wait to see what the next one brings.
David McKillop Acting Head of Pre Prep
Curriculum in Lower School
It has been another wonderful year of enthusiasm, enquiry and engagement in Lower School. As we continue our journey towards becoming a World Class, High Performance Learning school, we are confident that we will gain accreditation in May, yet we know that our journey does not end there. We will continue to seek out the most up-to-date research in educational practice and pedagogy worldwide, ensuring we continue to offer the very best we can to our students.
We know that in this rapidly changing world, we need to prepare our students for a future that we cannot predict. Therefore, alongside the essential learner skills; Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, Numeracy and Digital Literacy, it is vital that we are teaching our students to use the Thinking Skills; Meta-Thinking, Linking Learning, Analysing, Creative Thinking and Mastery, and they have amazed us at how well they have done this. Students are also frequently demonstrating our two new iRules; iWonder and iPractise, highlighting the importance and value of enquiry and deliberate practice.
Although they may not have the language to verbalise these skills - our Lion Cubs and Pre-Nursery students regularly model them through play and interactions with peers and adults. Some have even begun to show a basic awareness through use of the keyword sign for ‘Thinking’! Reception students have used the visible thinking routine ‘See, Think, Wonder’ as a starting point for topics such as; Why are plants important and how can we help them grow?
In Pre-Prep, our students have been fantastic at making sure they plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. Within lessons, there are opportunities for guided practice, but also independent practice. Students are beginning to make links between their learning and are identifying their strengths and areas for development. They are definitely starting to understand HOW they learn, which is very exciting indeed!
