We
extend a warm and hearty welcome to you, as parents of our Prep year students
at Biddeston School. We look forward to sharing many happy times with you
as we work together to provide the best possible learning opportunities for
your child. Biddeston State School offers a wonderful start for your child’s
learning. Developing a love of learning, celebrating success and establishing
the building blocks for future learning are the core elements of a quality Prep
curriculum program.
Prep is the first year of the Early Phase of Learning
which spans from Prep to Year 3.
Prep lays the educational foundations for all
students to attain the skills required for success in later schooling. These
skills include knowledge and application of language, early literacy and
numeracy, sense of self, skills for relating to others and knowledge of the
immediate world.
Prep programs offer rich opportunities for differentiated
learning experiences to support all students. Through active and dynamic
environments, Prep students learn to solve problems, to communicate and to
build creative thinking skills.
At the beginning of the school year, self-initiated
and teacher-directed activities in outdoor and indoor settings provide
opportunities for teaching, building oral language and extending learning. As
the year progresses, there is a greater emphasis on focused teaching and
learning across a range of learning contexts as students continue to develop
knowledge, abilities and skills for success in their ongoing schooling.
Prep is child-centred. It clearly identifies enquiry-based learning and investigations as key elements.
Teachers plan for children’s
learning using five Early Learning
Areas. These are:
- Social and personal learning
- Health and physical learning
- Language learning and communication
- Early mathematical understandings
- Active learning processes
These five Early Learning
Areas are linked to
the curriculum that is used in other primary school year levels (eg The Arts,
English, Mathematics Key Learning Areas).
Children will learn through:
- Play
- Investigations
- Real Life situations
- Routines and transitions
- Focused learning and teaching
The teacher’s planning responds
to children’s needs and interests. Teachers monitor, assess and reflect on
children’s learning by:
- Understanding children
- Building partnerships
- Establishing flexible learning environments
- Creating contexts for learning
- Exploring what children learn