The Pre Kindergarten year is the year between Nursery and Kindergarten and is for children who will turn five during the year. In your child’s pre Kindergarten year, there are increasing opportunities for the children to develop their independence and explore their interests. The children in Pre Kindergarten no longer have a nap during the day as they did in Nursery. They begin to use the canteen for their meals and they engage in slightly more structured lessons.

The classroom set up in Pre 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. 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. Pre Kindergarten children have the opportunity to use and learn Chinese and English everyday.

A typical schedule for a Pre Kindergarten class would look something like the following:

In addition to the regular classroom programme, the children take part in lessons taken by specialist teachers in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, the Perceptual Motor Programme and Library.