The Department of Education allocated this week to highlight the importance of Early Childhood Education and has called it 'The week of the Young Child’.  

Celebrating the Week of the Young Child at the International School of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Here at the International School of the Turks and Caicos Islands, we are fully committed to providing high quality education for the early years, maintaining our belief that is essential for children to have firm foundations on which to build their education. An education which begins in our Early Years will instill in children a curiosity about the world and inspire in them a love of learning through highly structured and well planned play situations in which child can develop in the 3 prime areas of Physical development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language.

We will then build up their knowledge and understanding and help them to grow across 4 specific curriculum areas of Literacy, Mathematics, Art and Design and Understanding the World. To highlight the outstanding work being done in our Early Years Foundation Stage we have had a wonderful week, as usual, celebrating the importance we put on this crucial stage in children’s learning and development. Today we hosted a ‘Messy Morning’, where children learned in a practical and hands on way in our beautiful and well-appointed outdoor playground. Parents were invited to join us, to get involved in the children’s learning. Many times our young children come out of school each day and parents are eager to hear what they have learnt, children often respond with comments that they “just played all day.” Often people undervalue the importance of these early years. It is important for us, as adults, to understand that for the young child, their way of discovering the world is through play and play when it is well planned by experienced professionals, it provides powerful learning experiences. Consider, if you will, how you learn to use something new (a new smart phone/ technical gadget) I bet you sit down and have a good ‘play’ with it, until you are fully conversant in all of its features and you understand it: the same is true of young children! Consider the learning which can come out of play because, with careful intervention and planning, it is limitless! Look at these beautiful photographs: the children are having fun whilst…

• Their social and emotional development, including interpersonal skills is supported and developed
• Their communication and language skills are being strengthened through interaction and negotiations
• Their knowledge and understanding of the world is growing through exploration and discovery
• Their understanding of mathematical concepts such as colour, shape, number, sequencing and matching is becoming more concrete
• They are experimenting with different media and materials and fine tuning their motor control; both fine motor and gross motor.

Learning is so much fun!!