What We Offer

At Kew Park, we offer both casa and elementary programmes, as well as, before and after school childcare.  Our Montessori curriculum is enriched with our extensive specialist subjects as well.

Casa

Our casa programme for 3, 4 and 5 year-old children prepares them to reach their full potential in all areas of life.  In our calm and happy classrooms, students blossom academically, socially, physically and emotionally.  Casa students are grouped in mixed age groups of 3 to 5 years. This multi-age grouping encourages community, mentorship and emotional development. Younger children are inspired to do more advanced work by having older children working in the same environment.  Older children, meanwhile, learn how to be leaders and reinforce their own knowledge by sharing it with younger ones.

The prepared classroom environment and the use of concrete Montessori learning materials provide children the opportunity to work independently and concretely to develop their senses as they move towards abstract thinking.  The complex and extensive Montessori curriculum spans three years and children learn at their own pace and according to their own abilities. During the three years, teachers have the opportunity to really get to know their students and identify individual learning styles.

Our casa curriculum is based on the following areas of learning:

• Practical Life
• Sensorial
• Language
• Math
• Cultural

The Practical Life component of our Montessori casa curriculum is the foundation for success in all other areas.  Our Practical Life curriculum supports and facilitates children in their innate desire to become independent and take care of their needs and those of their environment. Specific tasks enable your child to gain independence and develop a sense of order, coordination, an ability to concentrate and a sense of responsibility. Our Practical Life curriculum includes exercises that develop your child’s fine motor skills, preparing him/her to work with writing tools. It also includes lessons in grace and courtesy that will enable your child to have the social interactions that underlie good interpersonal relationships.

The Sensorial curriculum uses scientifically designed materials that isolate and sharpen each sense to support development of the intellect through hands-on exploration in the following areas: visual, tactile, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and baric. Our Montessori Sensorial curriculum trains children to discriminate and order the impressions received through each of their senses. Your child will learn to separate and classify forms, colours, textures, tastes, sounds and smells. This prepares them for more complex learning in language, math and cultural studies.

Our Language curriculum is designed to meet your child’s innate need to acquire language. The enrichment of language skills is deeply embedded in the Montessori approach, and is a focal point of lessons in all of the other curriculum areas. Using Montessori materials, your child will acquire a rich vocabulary for labelling, describing, comparing and contrasting the environment and the people in that environment with precise terminology.

The children are introduced to the sounds of the alphabet through the sandpaper letters.  With their sounds mastered, they begin to build words and read phonetically. Additional language materials teach phonograms, puzzle words and other language conventions.  Written language is introduced to children through progressive exercises that lead them to early levels of competence in writing skills.

Discussion is encouraged and the children are given the appropriate language to engage in a meaningful exchange as they work. Small group and circle activities are organized on a daily basis. These are opportunities for the children to enjoy a wide variety of language activities that enrich their oral expression and strengthen their listening skills.

Our Math curriculum is firmly based on learning through experience. As with all elements of the curriculum, children build on what they already know and systematically progress from the concrete to the abstract. They discover number patterns, sequences and rules by handling the materials.

To begin, children use a wide variety of materials that lead them to understand the value and sequence of numbers from 1 to 10. Once they have mastered this, they are introduced to larger quantities and learn the decimal system by making groups of units, tens, hundreds and thousands. Number notation and place value are taught as the child demonstrates readiness. They are introduced to the basic operations: addition, multiplication, subtraction and division at a concrete level so that they experience what these activities really mean. Gradually, they move toward an abstract understanding of the concepts.Our Cultural curriculum explores areas of science, social studies, geography, art and history. Children are exposed to a rich, stimulating variety of work experienced through hands-on learning. Working with the cultural materials helps children become aware that they are part of the greater family of humanity.