Early Years Program of Studies
The International School of Krakow is dedicated to excellence in the intellectual and personal development of tomorrow's world citizens.
Dear Parents, The International School of Krakow’s Program of Studies booklet is an essential tool to assist you in planning for your child's education. This booklet contains a description of the Early Years Program. We are always happy to assist you or address your concerns. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Sincerely, Mamie Heard Director
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BELIEFS AND PRINCIPLES The International School of Krakow implements the International Primary Curriculum (IPC) Early Years program in its nursery and preschool groups. These are the beliefs and principles which underpin the IPC at early years level: •
The overriding purpose of early years education is to help children develop the skills and attitudes they will need both at this level and throughout a lifetime of learning.
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Children need a holistic educational experience that doesn’t create artificial boundaries between different aspects of their development.
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Play is an essential part of children’s learning and general development.
LEARNING Children's learning is the central purpose of everything connected with the IPC Early Years. Helping children learn — academically, socially, spiritually, emotionally, physically — is the only real purpose of schools. What children learn should respect the past but should be of help to them in their future lives. This involves a degree of prediction which may not always be accurate and which will always need to be revised. Prediction is a risk. Not to engage in it is a much bigger risk to children. Children's learning must respond to their current and future personal needs, their future career needs and the needs of the varied societies and cultural groups in which they are likely to play a part. Learning needs to be active, in the sense that children must engage with their own learning. For early years children, this means that learning which is relevant to the future must be placed in a context that is meaningful to their present lives. Children need to share responsibility for their learning with their teachers, parents and careers. The proportion of responsibility each bears will depend on the age and characteristics of the children. Nevertheless, learning must be constructed in such a way that, by the end of the primary years, children begin to see and experience the potential for taking responsibility for their own learning.
THE LEARNING STRANDS At the very heart of the IPC Early Years is clarity about what children should learn. The learning of children aged three to five is described in four strands: 1. Independence and interdependence This strand focuses, to a large extent, on the children’s personal goals and their relationships with other children. Children learn about: • their own rights and those of others • diversity • standing up for themselves and others • their own gender and the opposite gender • their own ethnic group and other ethnic groups • their family background • respecting and interacting with people who are different from themselves • their relationships with others • their ability to acquire new interests and skills • their own particular strengths • interpersonal skills • strategies for solving conflicts in peaceful ways • positive and constructive attitudes to competition • taking another’s point of view • empathizing with others • taking part in group activities • playing alone, alongside others and with others • taking responsibility for their own actions • expressing disagreement and difference of opinion in appropriate ways, respecting rules about their relationship with others and their environment • the links between school and the wider world • the local area • playing an active part in school activities • caring for the immediate environment • expressing their own ideas • taking on different roles in different contexts • the routines, customs and regular events of school • rules, responsibilities and rights • acceptable behavior
2. Communicating This strand is primarily about developing skills in communication including speaking and listening, reading and writing, early numeracy work and the expressive arts. Children learn about: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
using gesture and expressive body movement for communication understanding non-verbal messages using language skills in a variety of contexts using repetitive sounds and words, aspects of language such as rhythm, rhyme and alliteration, and to enjoy stories and rhymes the practical use of at least one language the value of their first language enjoying and using verbal communication listening attentively and responding appropriately to others using words, pictures, print, numbers, sounds, shapes, models, photographs and ICT to represent thoughts, experiences and ideas exploring and observing the use of print stories and literature valued by the cultures in their community enjoying and using words and books exploring and observing the use of numbers in purposeful activities using mathematical symbols and concepts enjoying and using numbers some of the technology and resources used for mathematics, reading and writing creating stories and symbols materials and technology used in creative and expressive arts using the processes of art and craft using different media to express a mood or a feeling or for representing information being creative and expressive through a variety of activities singing songs, including songs of their own and those from different countries and cultures a selection of the art, craft, songs, music and stories which are valued by the cultures in the community enjoying and using music, art, drama and dance a variety of types of music, art, dance and drama used as expressions of feeling, mood, situation, occasion and culture.
3. Exploring Through this strand the children’s skills in inquiry are developed. Children learn about: • making decisions, choosing their own materials and setting their own problems • taking responsibility for their own learning • trying things out, using exploration and curiosity as important and valued ways of learning • taking part in symbolic, pretend or dramatic play
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playing with ideas and materials as an enjoyable, creative and valid approach to learning controlling their bodies and developing fine and gross motor control actively exploring and making sense of the world by using tools, materials and equipment moving in space and moving to rhythm using a variety of strategies for exploring and making sense of the world setting and solving problems looking for patterns, classifying things for a purpose, guessing, using trial and error thinking logically, making comparisons and asking questions explaining, listening to others, taking part in reflective discussion, planning and observing identifying and using information from a range of sources choosing and experimenting with materials, playing with ideas, and exploring actively with all the senses representing their discoveries using a variety of media, including ICT enquiring, researching and exploring to draw conclusions about the world around them a range of materials in daily use spatial representations such as maps, diagrams, photographs and drawings stories including myths, legends and other fiction the Earth and beyond significant features of the locality social relationships and social concepts, such as friendship and authority, and social rules and understandings the natural environment and their own place in it responsibility for the well-being of both the living and the non-living environment the living world and how to care for it.
4. Healthy living Within this strand, children are encouraged to understand how to look after themselves and each other. Children learn about: • • • • • • • • •
keeping themselves healthy self-help and self-care making choices paying attention concentrating coping with change their own personal worth expressing emotions and emotional needs keeping themselves safe from harm
EARLY YEARS CLASSES Children in the early years program participate in centers-based learning activities. Children's unique interests drive the theme-based curriculum in which child-centered activities are developed to introduce language arts, mathematics, science and social studies skills, and to encourage creativity and social and emotional development. In addition to these activities, children take part in music, physical education, and either native or foreign language exploration classes taught by specialist teachers. Dedicated quiet time every afternoon ensures that children are rested and focused to approach the exploration and discovery opportunities provided at the International School of Krakow. All Early Years classes at ISK are of mixed age. Combining three and four year-olds in the same classroom supports the goals of the IPC in providing a holistic educational experience in which development occurs naturally and individually for each child. Current research also indicates that mixed-age classes offer benefits to all children, which are summarized in the following excerpt from the American Educational Research Journal: �The development of social and cognitive skills relies heavily on peer relationships. Research findings suggest that children acquire unique adaptational advantages through mixed-age socialization. Three year olds in mixed-age classrooms are more likely to engage in "complex" modes of play. Younger children prefer to imitate older children and children find it more rewarding if they are imitated by younger peers. Children make accommodative shifts in accordance with speech levels of their younger social partners and children adjust their levels of moral reasoning after being exposed to older peers. Several studies indicate that the practice of age segregation in educational settings seems unwise. Age segregation could lead to alienation, indifference, and antagonism in children's groups. In mixed-age groupings older children are in a position to sharpen skills already learned on their younger counterparts, whereas younger children are in a position to learn through interactions with their older, more competent peers. Meaningful social interactions occur across age groups in mixed-age classrooms. Mixed-age classrooms facilitate the acquisition of vocabulary and improve role-taking and tutoring skills. Age composition of the preschool classroom does affect the social-cognitive play initiations of young children. Three year-olds in mixed-age classrooms were more likely to engage in parallelconstructive, interactive-constructive, and solitary-constructive play than three year-olds in sameage classrooms. They were also less likely to engage in the least mature level of play (solitary manipulative).� (insert citation of article in MLA format)