Pre-Preparatory School
SETTING THE FOUNDATION FOR LIFELONG LEARNING
The Pre-Preparatory School encompasses the distinctive and special qualities of early childhood education, where a play-based approach supports the deep learning at our school. We welcome children in Grade 000, 00, and Grade R in the beautiful and safe surroundings of Somerset College. The Pre-Preparatory School promotes physical activity, creative adventure, and play while preparing our children for a seamless education through the Preparatory and Senior Schools.
At Somerset College Pre-Preparatory School, the focus is on building a strong foundation in all the developmental areas in the early years of a child. For children to grow into competent, successful, and healthy adults, their education in the early years should meet specific developmental milestones in each of these learning areas.
The core developmental areas include cognitive and perceptual development, social and emotional development, and physical development. These areas are viewed as critical and the building blocks for all future learning.
The auxiliary learning areas include language and literacy, numeracy, knowledge and skills, as well as, the creative arts.
Many of these skills develop naturally through our play-based approach.
- Play builds self-esteem and confidence.
- Play develops problem-solving skills.
- Play encourages new vocabulary usage.
- Play teaches children to collaborate.
- Play teaches children to be alone and independent.
- Play allows children to release their emotions.
- Play encourages planning and thinking ahead.
Cognitive and Perceptual development pertains to skills regarding learning and thinking. Cognitive skills include:
- asking questions
- developing an increased attention span
- problem solving
- visual discrimination, matching, comparing, sorting, and organizing
- understanding fact and fiction
- understanding cause and effect
- simple reasoning
Young children are full of questions and they love to collect things. They also like to practice the same thing again and again, and they love hearing the same story told multiple times. Young children love taking risks and trying new things. As cognition develops, children build on prior experiences, using these to help them make sense of their world.
Perception develops through information that is gathered from the senses. As they grow, young children learn to discern information from the environment that is significant to them. This ability to filter information helps children interpret and attach meaning to objects and events.
Physical development skills are an essential part of our school offering. This area of a child’s development is divided into two components: gross motor development (large muscles) and fine motor development (small muscles)
Gross motor skills include:
- Muscle control, balance, coordination and locomotion through building core strength
- Laterality
- Mid-line crossing
- Body awareness
- Wellness, rest, exercise, health, and nutrition
Fine motor skills include:
- Manipulating small objects
- Establishing hand, foot and eye dominance
- Creative expression through multiple mediums and tools
Our inclusive offering at Somerset College Pre-Preparatory School includes a comprehensive physical education programme. Children take part in ball skills, swimming and an Integrated Motor Programme. Another component of the daily programme is the use of large apparatus, wheeled toys and water and sand play on the adventure playground and in the fairy gardens.
Social and emotional development covers a wide range of skills, such as:
- Regulating one’s own behaviours and emotions
- Developing friendships with other children and healthy relationships with adults
- Creating a positive personal identity (liking oneself and building confidence, for example)
- Developing a working memory, curiosity for the world, and persistence
- Participating and engaging in learning
Children are naturally social and curious. They are also packed full of big emotions and need help navigating their feelings and learning how to react and respond in social situations.
It is an important part of growing up around other children. It is also under this domain that all children need to feel safe, nurtured, respected, and loved.
We know that children are naturally social, so they need the skills to be able to communicate their ideas and feelings. Language and Literacy skills have a direct impact on reading and writing success in later years and include age-appropriate skills such as:
- Foundational emergent reading skills (concepts of print, phonemic awareness, and phonics)
- Emergent writing (developmentally appropriate drawings, dictated stories and messages, beginning letter formations)
- Speaking and listening (participating in conversations, asking, and answering questions, describing things, adding details, speaking audibly, clearly, and in complete sentences
The Numeracy programme enables the young child to identify and solve problems using critical and creative thinking. It also develops mathematically related knowledge and skills for everyday life. The skills being developed include:
Counting, estimating, and calculating
Measuring and collecting data
Recognising, describing, and representing patterns and relationships
Describing and representing characteristics between 2D and 3D objects
The learning area of Knowledge and Skills encompasses a range of topics and learning experiences and is designed to contribute to the full personal development of the young child. It aims to broaden their knowledge of self and the world they live in. This integrated programme incorporates essential 21st century life skills into all areas of learning. The ESTEAM component of learning is critical in this aspect of our programme as these integrated activities encourage and challenge a child’s natural sense of curiosity.
These 21st century skills include:
- Thinking skills – critical, creative and reflective thinking
- Research skills – inquiring into, information literacy
- Communication skills – personal interaction with others, communicating information with others
- Social skills – personal behaviour, collaboration
- Self-management skills - Organisational skills, self-reflection, affective skills
The Creative Arts learning area encompasses the performing arts, such as music, movement, and drama as well as the visual arts. Children are encouraged to participate in a variety of activities that promote creativity, imagination, and originality. Through art activities, children develop sensory perception, eye-hand coordination, fine-motor control, pleasure and satisfaction in their own work and work of their friends, and self-expression. In addition, children are exposed to art appreciation, which aims to stimulate an interest and understanding of the various art forms.
Grade 000 (AGE 3 – 4)THE SCHOOL DAY08h30 - 12h00 To apply to Somerset College please click below; Grade 000 applicants must be fully toilet trained by date of enrolment. |
![]() Grade 00 (AGE 4 – 5)THE SCHOOL DAY08h30 - 12h30
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Grade R (AGE 5 – 6)THE SCHOOL DAY08h30 - 12h30 |