“Play is the Highest Form of Research!” - Albert Einstein
The new Early Years Centre (EYC) at The International School ParkCity (ISP) opened in September 2016 and is already proving to be a huge success. Located next to the Desa ParkCity Sports Club, the EYC is a purpose built facility providing bright, open plan indoor spaces and a safe, green outside environment in which the children can learn, play and grow.
The EYC caters for Nursery and Reception children aged between 3 and 5 years old. The dedicated and highly skilled Early Years team work together to give the children the best start possible in their educational journey. As experienced Early Years Practitioners we understand that every child is unique and develops at their own pace and in individual ways. Children from all over the world attend the EYC and we work hard to build upon the children’s varied existing knowledge and experiences, providing opportunities for progression, extension and challenge. Through the universal language of play, children can communicate, make friends and grow as individuals irrespective of language, culture, religion, ability or gender.
The Importance of Play
Research shows that play is an essential part of every child’s life and is vital for the enjoyment of childhood as well as enhancing social, emotional, intellectual and physical development. In June 2010, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognised the right of every child to take part in play activities. Play enables learning to become in-depth, concrete and long-term.
The EYC @ ISP offers a dynamic and carefully prepared environment that invites our children to explore, examine, question, predict, test, investigate, trial, learn from mistakes and manipulate. The well resourced play spaces enable the children to engage in purposeful play experiences as well as to take part in a wide variety of adult-led and child-initiated activities. These activities successfully build on the child’s innate joy in play allowing the children to:
● Increase their self-awareness, self-esteem and self-respect
● Make informed choices, make mistakes and learn from them
● Improve and maintain their physical development and emotional health
● Interact with other children and develop their social skills
● Increase their confidence through developing new skills
● Promote their imagination, independence and creativity
● Develop their language and communication skills
● Build resilience through risk taking and challenge, problem solving and dealing with new and novel situations
Learning and Development @ The EYC
We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework for England. This framework enables children to learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and demonstrate their understanding through the seven areas of learning and development. There are three prime areas - Communication and Language; Physical Development; and Personal, Social and Emotional Development which are essential for each child’s healthy development and future learning. As the children grow, the prime areas will help them to develop skills in the four specific areas - Literacy; Mathematics; Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design.
Developing Positive Relationships @ The EYC
We promote a family atmosphere which makes everyone feel welcome. Each child has their own teacher and classroom assistant whose role it is to provide the children with safe and challenging environments, giving the children the time, space and resources they need to support and extend their learning. We believe that every child deserves to feel safe, secure and valued and our role as Early Years professionals is crucial. The children are respected, valued and listened to which enables them to thrive both socially and emotionally.
Enabling Environments - The Indoor Environment @ The EYC
The EYC has been designed to create a comfortable environment providing age appropriate learning spaces. These are planned carefully utilising flexible, high quality resources which are easily accessible to promote independence. Each child has their own class base; vibrant large airy classrooms, each with dedicated toilets, loft areas and interactive screens. Children also have access to a central shared learning space where they mix freely with the children from the other classes. Opportunities to extend communication, reading, writing and personal, social and emotional skills run throughout each of the spaces, for example, role play areas providing opportunities to write shopping lists in the ‘house’ or working collaboratively to design and build a spaceship with the large wooden blocks.
Enabling Environments - The Outdoor Environment @ The EYC
Being outdoors is extremely important to us and our children, and our outdoor classroom is a fantastic resource which offers the children opportunities to be creative and problem solve on a larger scale. The children are able to enjoy being part of nature, breathing in the fresh air and develop all of their senses. Being outdoors promotes calculated risk taking and enhances physical activity through the large scale climbing opportunities on our purpose built adventure playground. The bike track provides an opportunity for fun, cooperative engagement whilst our carefully designed mud kitchen and sand pit are preparing our engineers of the future and the quiet, hidden spaces offer time for reflection.
A Typical Day @ The Early Years Centre
A typical day for a child who attends our Early Years Centre would begin at 8.30am for Reception children and the children in Nursery begin at 9.00am, however we have a flexible drop off from 8.00am for all children. The school day finishes at 2.15pm and we offer a supervised, shuttle bus service to the ISP main school site to enable younger siblings to meet their older brothers and sisters at the end of their school day.
The EYC @ ISP is a truly magical place to learn, play and grow, so if you would like to find out more about our Early Years Centre and how the children learn then please do not hesitate to contact us to make an appointment.
Written by Tracy Lewis, Head of The Early Years Centre
