Curriculum | Early Years | Alice Smith School
Alice Smith School
Alice Smith School

Curriculum | Early Years | Alice Smith School

Intent

To enable all students to flourish and thrive. We do this by delivering a bespoke Early Years curriculum. Please see our Early Years guide to learning booklet below for more info.

Implementation 

Through Preschool, Reception and Year 1, your child will be developing competencies, learning skills, acquiring new knowledge and demonstrating their understanding.

Impact

This enables your child to become: 

  • A unique individual who form positive relationships with adults and peers 
  • An independent, curious learner who explore and ask meaningful questions 
  • A confident learner who are ready for the next stage in their learning journey

Specialist Lessons

Foundation Stage - physical devlopmentPhysical Development

The Physical Education (PE) department is passionate and dedicated to our provision for Early Years children and feel that your child’s experiences in their PE lessons build the foundations for happy, healthy and active lives. We aim to deliver a programme orientated around physical development and building physical literacy.

Your child will experience two carefully crafted lessons each week designed around the three areas of physical development: locomotion, stability and manipulation. At the core of our philosophy is the creation of engaging, fun and active lessons.

Foundation Stage - swimmingSwimming

The focus of lessons at this stage is to foster an enjoyment of, and comfort in, the water.  Lessons are conducted in very small teaching groups to ensure excellent safety and supervision levels. Your child will experience one lesson per week with our dedicated specialist team of swimming teachers.

Music

Your child will learn how to use their voices in different ways and how to play tuned and untuned percussion instruments. They will learn how to respond to music with their bodies and begin to improvise and create their own music. Alongside this, they will also develop their listening skills and learn to appreciate music. Your child will have specialist-led music lessons each week.

Library

Foundation Stage - libraryThe aim of library lessons in Early Years is to engage your children in a love of books in particular, stories, rhymes and making connections with images. During the reading of books, we will encourage your child to join in, either repeating words or anticipating rhymes, making physical gestures or movements and using their voice in a variety of ways.

Our library lessons are led by a specialist teacher librarian and your child will be encouraged to take one or two books home on a weekly basis.

Languages

In a world where the opportunities for international travel and work continue to grow, the ability to communicate in different languages is a highly valued skill at all levels. This is of course all the more significant for students at the Alice Smith School, given the international nature of our school and community.

Reception: Introduction to Bahasa Malaysia, the language of our host country

We value and recognise the importance of Bahasa Malaysia and we believe it is important to respect and relate to the language of our host country. In Reception, all students are introduced to Bahasa Malaysia through one weekly 40-minute lesson.

In Year 1, all students can choose to carry on learning Bahasa Malaysia or they can opt for French or Mandarin instead. In line with government requirements, Malaysian Nationals must study Bahasa Malaysia. The Malaysian students who choose to study French or Mandarin will, as a result, need to join an additional weekly Bahasa class.