Our Methodology - Pre-Primary School

Pre Primary school education is the foundation for the lifelong learning experience and starting point for formal education. A child’s development is a gradual process. At BITT Public School we understand and respect that each child is unique and has different abilities and interests. Our curriculum objectives have been laid out as per the developmental characteristics of each age group. The pre-primary school curriculum has been designed to nurture the below mentioned developmental objectives:

Play way Method: The play way method is a more spontaneous one, which demands creativity from both the teacher and the child. Unlike Montessori, Play way may not be a structured and documented system but more an adaptation of best practices from across the world, with a greater emphasis on physical activities such as role-play, music and movement, art and crafts, stories. At the age of 2 to 3 years, children are still learning how to communicate and play becomes their preferred medium of expression. But this can happen only if play is capitalized in a proper manner making it purposeful and directed.

Multiple Intelligence: A theory proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983, that differentiates intelligence and learning into various specific (primarily sensory) modalities, rather than seeing it as a single general ability. Simply put - different children have different learning styles. The theory proposes that eight abilities govern the learning process in any individual, especially children - spatial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. According to this theory, the purpose of schooling should be to develop intelligences and to help children reach learning goals by methods that are appropriate to their learning styles. This is a welcome departure from traditional systems that marked academic excellence only in terms of logical and linguistic abilities (reading, writing and math).

Language arts and phonics: At BPS, a lot of emphasis is laid on teaching English as most of the children come from homes where the language spoken regularly is not English. Year-wise objectives are laid out whereby in early years emphasis is on speaking, listening, pre reading & writing skills. Comprehension is a skill which is focused on, throughout the pre-primary school years. It is an integral part of language development.

Phonics is used to teach English in a structured manner. It has been designed to be implemented across the classes from nursery to grade 2. Objective of the phonics program is to build the skill where children become independent readers, spellers and writers.

Language should aid communication and children are encouraged to express themselves in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences using the skills acquired. On a daily basis stories are read, discussed and interpreted in the classrooms. In the Early year’s stories, rhymes, poems and non-fiction text (small passages with topics which interest the children of this age group) are read and discussed in the class rooms. Children participate in the classroom discussions, retelling the stories, sequencing the stories, reciting rhymes, picture reading and variety of activities designed for vocabulary building.

Cognitive Development: At our school, pre-math emphasizes on teaching the quality and essence of numbers using practical activities. Application of this knowledge to everyday life is what makes the learning interesting for children. For instance to teach number 2 all things that exist in nature in twos are used to explain its qualitative and quantitative aspect for example, 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 legs, etc. Our curriculum at the pre-primary school level has been designed to introduce mathematical concepts in a simple and tangible manner concentrating on one attribute at a time and progressing gradually. Our lesson plans are built to develop thinking and problem solving abilities through activities, observation, analysis and discussions.

Knowledge and understanding of the world: The pre-primary school curriculum has been developed to make the child understand and explore his immediate environment and the physical world. Also to learn the basic technique of exploring, questioning and drawing conclusions from their learning. Basic concepts pertaining to science and social studies are also covered in this pre-primary stage. They will also be taught to develop care and concern for animals, plants and environmental protection. Concepts like human body, foods, animals, environment, weather, culture and festivals, neighborhood, plants, sea-life etc. are introduced.