The Kindergarten year is the final year in the Early Years division. Children entering the Kindergarten year should turn six during the school year. The Kindergarten year recognizes the children’s need to have opportunities to develop and explore their growing independence. A strong focus of the program is self management and social and emotional skills, alongside the development of intellectual and communication skills that will enable each child to make a smooth transition into the primary division.

The classroom set up in Kindergarten sees our children working in large double rooms with a partner class. The teachers (two expatriate teachers and two local teachers) work together as a team, although each child identifies most with their own class teachers. While they work with a large group, most teaching is done in small groups as teachers set up a variety of exciting, play or project based learning centres for children to explore while they interact with a smaller focus group. This enables teachers to follow up on children’s interests and gear instruction to individual needs.

At SSIS, all Early Years classrooms have instruction in both English and Chinese. Kindergarten children have the opportunity to use and learn Chinese and English everyday. A typical schedule for a Kindergarten class would look something like the following: