Pre-Kindergarten at Tudor House
Our Pre-Kindergarten program warmly welcomes boys and girls five days a week from Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 3.00pm.
Our approach to learning in Pre-Kindergarten focuses on the whole child and is informed by research into child development and early childhood education. Our play-based and natured-based approach allows the children to discover, investigate and engage at their own pace and in the safety of a supportive and nurturing environment.
Our sprawling 169 acre campus provides the perfect backdrop for adventure and exploration and our Pre-Kindergarten children spend a significant portion of their day immersing themselves in the beautiful outdoor spaces. We love mud, rain and digging in the dirt.
Through the Paddock to Plate program, children interact with bees, chickens and other livestock and also grow and pick produce, including apples in our orchards, pumpkins, herbs and other seasonal fruit and vegetables. We allow kids to be kids and provide a place for them to belong, develop their sense of self, engage their five senses, and find joy in learning.
The Pre-Kindergarten children are fully integrated into the broader Kindergarten to Year 6 school experience through the buddies program (with Year 5), meals and community activities, but they also maintain their own distinct and autonomous program. This program is underpinned by the Early Years Learning Framework Belonging, Being and Becoming where students learn about themselves and the world around them through play-based learning experiences.
We meet the children where they are at in terms of their social, emotional, physical and spiritual development, using rich learning experiences in both indoor and outdoor settings to build their skills across these broad domains.
The Pre-Kindergarten classrooms form part of the Lower School Precinct, allowing students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 2 to interact positively with each other in a safe space. This helps our youngest Tudorians learn by example, as older students role model traits of leadership and pro-social behaviours. The Pre-Kindergarten program also aligns itself with the PYP, helping our students become engaged inquirers, risk takers and collaborators.
The Pre-Kindergarten program includes regular opportunities for the development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills, as well as for Music, French, Woodwork, Art, PE, Library and Biblical Studies. These lessons are embedded within the daily program and are supported by specialist teachers.
Tudor House offers places in Pre-Kindergarten for boys and girls who have had their fourth birthday by 31 March of their entry year.
Pre-K Information Session
Term 3: Tuesday 12 August
Aims for Pre-Kindergarten
A successful Pre-Kindergarten year will prepare the students for a smooth transition to Kindergarten by immersing them in the Tudor House environment and exposing them to many learning opportunities. The breadth of experiences across our five-day program is extensive and this ensures students are ready to make the leap to Kindergarten the following year.
- Encourage independence, cooperation, initiative, confidence and promote student’s self esteem.
- Develop the social and interpersonal skills of the students to enable effective communication.
- Develop fine and gross motor skills through age appropriate activities and play.
- Stimulate cognitive development.
- Enhance listening and speaking skills and emphasise language development as the basis for all learning.
Aims for Pre-Kindergarten
A successful Pre-Kindergarten year will prepare the students for a smooth transition to Kindergarten by immersing them in the Tudor House environment and exposing them to many learning opportunities. The breadth of experiences across our five-day program is extensive and this ensures students are ready to make the leap to Kindergarten the following year.
- Encourage independence, cooperation, initiative, confidence and promote student’s self esteem.
- Develop the social and interpersonal skills of the students to enable effective communication.
- Develop fine and gross motor skills through age appropriate activities and play.
- Stimulate cognitive development.
- Enhance listening and speaking skills and emphasise language development as the basis for all learning.
Educational Philosophy
In Pre-Kindergarten, our Educational Philosophy is guided by the Reggio Emilia approach where students are at the centre of their learning.
The Pre-Kindergarten students can experiment and engage in their own learning through play-based and constructivist classroom activities. In alignment with our school values and attitudes, the Reggio Emilia approach is based around students developing and growing independently as individuals focusing on embodying the key values of respect and responsibility in our community.
Through this approach, students are encouraged to investigate, explore, discover, research, connect and reflect on their learning through interacting with the natural world. In our program we focus on students constructing their own learning in a natural environment; learning through interactions with the people in their communities, learning to express themselves, and becoming global thinkers and citizens of the world.
Pastrol Care
An extensive pastoral care program exists at Tudor House.
Your child’s class teacher is ably supported by the Colour Housemasters (Your child will be placed in one of three colour houses – Blue, Red, White), the school counsellor and the Director of Students and Community. Explicit programs are taught throughout the year to help promote the development of social skills. The Year 5 buddies regularly spend time with the Pre-Kindergarten students to provide pastoral support.
Specialist Lessons
Our boarding options allow parents to choose what is most suitable for their child and each provides excellent opportunities to mix, immerse and get the most from school life.
We warmly welcome boys and girls from the country and the city, from the local area and from overseas – students from all walks of life and corners of the world happily call Tudor House their home.
Art lessons take place in the Art Studio and art experiences involve engagement with the five senses. Sometimes lessons take place outdoors and involve collecting natural materials. Exposure to drawing, painting, clay and other mediums provides the perfect place for the students to develop their creativity and express themselves.
The King’s School, Tudor House has historical and active connections with the Anglican Church. Biblical Studies lessons are held each week and provide an opportunity for students to learn about God from the Bible. A regular lesson will include singing Christian songs, praying and reading from a children’s picture Bible. Students are encouraged to ask questions and engage in discussion about the stories.
The Tudor House Library supports and enhances the International Baccalaureate PYP. Our Library is central to our Learning space in our school and we aim to:
- Create a life-long love of reading.
- Promote the attributes of IB Learner Profile.
- Cater for diverse learning styles, cultures, beliefs and the mother tongues.
- Inspire inquiry and a love of learning.
The Tudor House Library provides curriculum-based resources, literature and recreational materials in a variety of formats which support the continually changing needs of our school’s community. Students and staff have access to a broad fiction and non-fiction collection with an international perspective designed to support the Primary Years Programme (PYP). Special interest collections in both print and electronic formats are also available. These collections supplement the main collection and cover a range of academic and general interests. Our students from Pre-K – Year 6, visit the Library weekly, to browse, read, borrow, interact and undertake research and inquiry.
Mini Kahiba is part of our Outdoor Educational program. Pre-K join the Lower School in Little Wildee on Friday afternoon. This unique learning experience enables our smallest Tudorians to:
- Extend their learning environment through challenge-based programs, developing skills and qualities not taught in the classroom.
- Develop a respect for others and the environment.
- Explore personal boundaries and to be equipped with life skills for success.
- Encounter new physical and emotional challenges in a new environment.
- Create opportunities for great friendships.
- Practice acceptance of others and teamwork.
- Develop confidence and co-operation with others.
- Become skilled and resourceful individuals.
Pre-Kindergarten students have weekly lessons in the Music Room and are given opportunities to make music, listen to music and appreciate music. Singing, tuned and untuned percussion and other musical experiences provide Pre-K students a chance to make noise, have fun and build their basic music literacy skills.
Each week, the Pre-Kindergarten students had a special gardening experience in the agricultural plot. These immersive experienes include exploration of the greenhouse, planting fruit and vegetables, collecting chicken eggs and checking on the sheep and alpacas.
PE provides the opportunity for Pre-Kindergarten students to build on their foundational gross motor skills of running, jumping, hopping, skipping, balancing, walking and climbing through obstacle courses.
Teaching, supporting and guiding active, engaged students through both physical and mental activities, and challenges through designing and making.
Students from Pre-K – Year 6 experience Woodwork for one hour per week. There is a focus on safety awareness and understanding procedures, before students move onto designing and building.
Developing their self-management skills, students learn new skills using hand and machine tools. They independently solve design problems, identify appropriate materials and investigate different processes. Students evaluate their creations upon completion.
Participation in Woodwork develops our students:
- Critical and creative thinking skills
- Collaborative skills
- Communication skills
- Physicality
- Practical Life skills
- Decision making
- Problem solving