Early Years
Early Years programme
Redbridge International School follows the guidance offered by the French national curriculum for the first three years of ‘maternelle’ whilst maintaining a strong focus on self-directed play, creativity, autonomy and the natural learning of social skills in the Early Years.
Children engage in active-learning experiences where their curiosity is encouraged and rewarded through projects inspired by their own interests. The Movimento da Escola Moderna (MEM) instruments and democratic classroom principles help structure the school day and week.
We also use some Montessori resources to supplement the dedicated classroom areas.
- Our 3 year-old children enjoy the comfort of a completely adapted and personalised nursery classroom (EY1) and benefit from the caring teaching approach of three dedicated and full-time teachers: one English, one French and one Portuguese.
- The other 4 classrooms are for our 4 and 5 year old children in a mixed-age set-up called EY2. The multilingual approach established in EY1, continues with children accessing activities and instruction in all three languages throughout the day. We have facilitated this by connecting pairs of classes so that each pair has two dedicated homeroom teachers (one French and one Portuguese) and two English-speaking teaching assistants between them.
Early Years facilities
The Early Years pavilion is a uniquely shaped wooden building comprising 500 m2, built amongst beautiful trees. This building houses 5 classrooms, all with incorporated bathrooms, storage space, learning areas, a dedicated reading space, with each room having direct access to the garden. The building also offers a communal space for our educational team, a small kitchen and a meeting room.
The top floor of our Early Years pavilion is comprised of a mezzanine for group activities, such as music classes and dance, as well as a storage room.
Early Years children have weekly access to the school’s library and to the Sports Hall in the school’s main building for their P.E. classes.
Our outside area includes a garden, a sandpit as well as three mud kitchens embedded within our gardens’ trees. Children also have access to our deck when accompanied by a member of our team.
Schedules
School hours for our children in the Early Years are from 8:30 to 15:40, Monday to Friday.
Children in the Early Years have a 30 min morning and afternoon playtime and a 1h30 lunch break at midday. Nap time for those who need one is from 12:00 until 14:00.
Early Years Photo Gallery
