Early Years (PK–2)
Wonder | Explore | Ignite
The Early Years is when children are in their peak developmental and learning phase and where good quality teaching and learning can have the most significant impact in providing the secure foundations for a child's future learning, cognitive, social and emotional development.
Children's brains develop at an incredible speed in the early years of life, a time when they form neural pathways and make connections. Learning is rapid at this time, and the foundations built early will be ever relied upon. The experiences and opportunities a child is given is integral to their growth and learning, now and in later years. Put simply, the early years of a child's learning experiences lay the foundation for all that is to come and is an important catalyst to their future options.
Wonder
Wondering about the world, its people and a sense of natural questioning and curiosity are innate at this young age. We aim to capture and promote this to retain this ability to naturally question for as long as possible and support children to learn how to act on their wonderings, hypothesise, investigate and make meaning of the world in which they live.
Explore
We encourage children to explore through play, co-constructed activities and provocations promote critical thinking, enabling learning to occur in an interdisciplinary way. Exploration can lead to discovering a passion, interest, or talent and help children become more confident, independent, creative, and collaborative.
Ignite
Our mindfully constructed learning environments engage and become our third teacher to provide rich, authentic opportunities. We strive to provide a foundation and passion for lifelong learning, igniting children's interests, curiosities and natural thirst to learn.
Philosophy Statement
As part of the first Quality Improvement Plan embarked upon by the Early Years (PK–2) staff, the following Philosophy Statement was created to encapsulate what it is that we provide for our students during their early years at Scotch.
In the Early Years, we honour the image of the child as one who is capable, competent, rich in potential and unique in their characteristics. Cultural identity and diversity are respected and reflected in our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme.
Our children are empowered, through provocations, to think independently and become active inquirers through play, exploration and investigation. Our mindfully co-constructed learning environments engage and become our third teacher providing rich, authentic opportunities for children. We strive to provide a foundation and passion for lifelong learning.
To build awareness of the interconnectedness of their world, we take the children outdoors to investigate their environment. Our Nature Pedagogy enables children to explore through their innate sense of wonder, ignite their natural curiosity and develop a sense of responsibility for the care of their world.
Building a strong partnership with families and connecting to the surrounding community is the start of a magnificent journey here at Scotch and beyond. We build resilience to develop independence and perseverance when engaging in everyday experiences. Our priority is to ensure all children feel safe, secure and supported in a fun, dynamic and holistic learning community.
Primary Years (3–5)
Inquire | Discover | Strive
In the Primary Years, we recognise that boys have different needs as they grow and learn at different rates. We provide an environment that supports each boy in learning and engaging through our International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. Our staff have a strong understanding of teaching and engaging boys at each age. Our focus is on ensuring each boy develops his skills and confidence in literacy and numeracy. Our Academic Support team supports classroom teachers to ensure each child is targeted at their exact area of learning need. This eliminates any learning gaps and provides challenges and enrichment opportunities to support boys with a strong foundation on which to continue their learning into the Middle School.
Inquire
The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) aims to engage students more than other curricula incorporating quality practices based on national and international research and the IB global community. Through the PYP, we create an authentic, inquiry-based learning and teaching programme that is engaging, significant, challenging and relevant. Boys are supported to become independent and collaborative learners, encouraged to have voice, choice and ownership in their learning.
Discover
We meet the challenge of creating a positive foundation for school by providing a broad-based curriculum that enables each boy to explore a wide variety of intellectual, physical, and creative opportunities. We teach the Australian Curriculum within the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme framework, which empowers boys to wonder about their world and recognise connections between learning areas. This also allows boys to choose and pursue areas of interest in their learning. Specifically built teaching and learning programmes focus on boys' engagement and cater to their specific learning styles.
Strive
We pride ourselves on ensuring we create engaging, challenging and all-encompassing teaching and learning programmes delivered to specifically reach boys and tailored to how we know boys learn best. Our strong pastoral model and genuine care to learn to understand and relate to each boy are crucial in working with our boys to strive to reach their learning goals and achieve their personal best.