Stepping Stones has an active transitioning to school policy and works closely with schools in the local area along with parents to ensure a smooth transition for children. More details are available on this policy upon enrolment.
The research in brain development emphasises that early learning (especially from birth to five) directly influences a child's ability to learn and succeed in school. These studies have contributed to a growing awareness of the importance of quality early education experiences. Research indicates that pre-schoolers who attend high quality programs:
  • Enter primary school with skills necessary for academic success.
  • Show greater understanding of verbal and numerical concepts.
  • Are more socially competent.
  • Show ability to concentrate on an activity longer.
  • Are more likely to make consistent progress through the primary school

What does a quality pre-school experience look like?

Social/Emotional development

Preschool teachers guide children in learning social skills that include responsibility and self regulation. Social emotional skills are developed through the shared activities a of developmentally appropriate well designed preschool classroom environment. Preschool social emotional components are:
  • Self awareness and regulation
  • Social emotional understanding
  • Empathy and caring
  • Initiative in learning
  • Interactions with familiar adults and peers
  • Group participation
  • Cooperation and responsibility
  • Relationship-attachment to parents, teachers and caregivers

Language and Literacy development

In the Stepping Stones classroom, children have meaningful and comprehensive opportunities for language stimulation. Using the Aistear Curriculum Framework, teachers in Stepping Stones will aid and promote language and literacy use by:
o   Using language daily
o   Vocabulary and grammar
o   Concepts about print
o   Phonological awareness
o   Literacy interest and response
o   Emergent Writing Activities and Skills
o   Listening to children
o   Speaking with children
o   Reading with children
o   Writing with children

Visual and Performing Arts

The visual and performing arts are natural to young children, exhibited early in the form of scribbling, pretending, humming, and swaying to music. In the preschool classroom, we engage and encourage children in arts activities on a regular basis. These activities lay the foundation and help wire children's brains for successful learning
  • Arts experiences are more about process than product
  • Arts are inclusive and common to all
  • Cultural competence and appreciation of the arts
  • Artisitic thinking processes and problem solving
  • Learning through dramatic and active play
  • Aesthetics in the classroom and intentional environment design
  • Disposition of learning and meaningful connections to the world

 

Numeracy Skills & Concepts


Young children explore the mathematic domains through interactions with their everyday environment. Children experience maths throughout the daily routine by counting, sorting, building shapes, measuring, and estimating. Our preschool classroom is designed with intention and order to promote maths experiences as the children play and explore their world.

 

Science

Science in preschool fosters a joy of discovery and a positive approach to learning. Children become confident learners by identifying solutions and problem solving through persistent hands on experimentation and become critical thinkers for a lifetime.
Stepping Stones will introduce children to scientific concepts through sand, water, playdough, art, gardening and nature.   



SOCIAL STUDIES

Children learn early how people live in the social world. Our preschool classroom mirrors the larger community with its diverse ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Preschool teachers help children to think about themselves and their roles and responsibilities that they and others assume. Children are developing a sense of belonging to places and groups that are meaningful to them. They learn about the time and how their current experience is affected by their personal past and relates to their future