Infant Programmes
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Learning Through Play
Play is at the heart of learning in infant classrooms here in Newcastle N.S. Through play, children explore the world around them, make sense of new experiences, and build the foundations for future learning in a way that feels natural, enjoyable, and meaningful.
In our infant classrooms, play supports children’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. As children play, they learn to communicate, cooperate, solve problems, and develop independence. Play-based experiences help children build confidence, resilience, and positive relationships, while also strengthening early skills in language, literacy, numeracy, and creativity.
Learning through play allows children to be active participants in their learning. It encourages curiosity, imagination, and a love of learning, while respecting each child’s individual pace and interests. Guided by the teacher, play provides purposeful opportunities for children to practise new skills, make choices, and express their ideas.
By valuing play in the infant classroom, we create a warm, engaging environment where children feel safe, supported, and motivated to learn—laying strong foundations for their continued growth and success in Newcastle N.S.
Ready, Set Go Maths
Our infants take part in the Ready Set Go Maths Programme. This is an interactive, hands on programme which focuses on using concrete materials and manipulates. All the pupils are thoroughly enjoying exploring concrete maths equipment while discussing their findings. The classroom is divided into four different stations with different teachers as they guide the pupils to explore different mathematical concepts. This programme helps the children experience a sense of pleasure in mathematics that comes from solving puzzles and problems. Under the guidance of the teachers, the children’s curiosity is stimulated by formulating questions and investigating mathematical situations. Children get the opportunity to explore in small group activities that draw on mathematical skills and concepts. They can experiment with pattern and discover relationships.
Literacy Lift Off
Here in Newcastle N.S, we are continuing with our exciting literacy lift off programme. This is a literacy programme which provides children with lots of opportunities to read books at their own level of competency and gradually lift the complexity of what they can do in both reading and writing. It is a whole-class intervention aimed at increasing each child’s competency in oral language, reading and writing. During each literacy session, the pupils have an opportunity to spend time at five different work stations working closely with three different teachers in the classroom. They enjoy multi-sensory activities discussing new books, writing a response to the text and progressing through fun word study activities. Parents play a huge part in the success of the programme as they listen and promote reading with their child at home.
Coding
Our infants learn to code using Bee-bots. Bee Bots are exciting programmable floor robots, designed specifically for use by young children. They are colourful, easy to operating and friendly little robots which are used to teach directional language and programming aswell as sequencing, estimation, problem solving and just having fun. Bee bots are also used in our infant rooms to reinforce new words and mathematical concepts.
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