PRE-NURSERY IN KENSINGTON SCHOOL
We are delighted to offer you our new educational offer for children from 18 months old. It is an important development for our school and, most of all, good news for families and their children. They will have the opportunity to embark sooner on Kensington’s educational journey, helping them to grow and develop the foundation skills that will be fundamental for later academic and life achievement, while it will support parent’s work-life balance by offering the best place for their children to be educated and be taken care of.
Children at the centre
Methodologically speaking, our new Pre-Nursery space incorporates the Inspired Early Years Framework, which reinforces the central role of children in constructing their own learning. We believe that placing their needs and rights at the centre of their educational experience enables us to support them in becoming caring, competent, and responsible citizens. Therefore, just as it happens in Nursery and Reception, our teaching will be reflective, following an approach called ‘Responsive teaching’. Based on the pedagogy developed by Loris Malaguzzi in Reggio Emilia, Italy, we will combine direct teaching with an approach following the ideas and interests of the children. This approach considers children, however young, as competent individuals, capable of constructing theory and understanding through the experiences they have. That is why teaching will be based on observing and listening to each child’s behaviour, interactions, and interests.
The right learning environment
As an Inspired school, we consider that the environment is central to the child’s learning experience. We are renovating our Early Years facilities to have classrooms that are purpose-built for the curriculum we teach, with children not confined to tables, free to explore each area. They will include an Atelier, a free space for children to explore a variety of materials with freedom to create and express. Furthermore, Pre-Nursery children will have an outdoor area which reflects the indoor learning environment, to allow learning on a larger scale, problem-solving and risk-taking.
Pre-Nursery is a part of our Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, based on 7 areas of learning where child will mostly be taught through games and play.
The areas of learning are:
- communication and language
- physical development
- personal, social and emotional development
- literacy
- mathematics
- understanding the world
- expressive arts and design
Immersion in English
We have a group of experienced, native and fully qualified teachers that will be with the children, with a ratio of one adult to five children. They will be fully immersed in English from day one, when they enter Kensington’s British environment. Our Pre-Nursery students will follow the British Curriculum, using ‘Birth to Five Matters’ as guidance, a document developed by the Early Years Coalition. Teachers will nurture and promote the language acquisition, that will happen naturally.
To sum up, our Pre-Nursery space will be more than a preparation for Nursery and Reception. As our Headteacher, Mr. Andrew de Salis, states, from the children’s first days in the school, they will develop their “collaborative, communicative and critical thinking skills”, helping them grow through the school gaining in responsibility and capability. All of this, of course, built on the bedrock of 53 years of experience of British education in Madrid.
The 2021-2022 school year preschool application is now open! Enrol your 18 Month– 2-year-old in our Pre-Nursery program and give your child a quality and holistic education at Kensington School.