Uplands Schools belongs to the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (ISASA). This organisation governs many independent schools in Southern Africa. In our Pre-Preparatory School, we follow the ISASA Early Childhood Development Guidelines, which incorporate the skills and milestones that young children need to acquire in each grade.
Our Uplands Pre-Preparatory School strives to ensure that our children get the best care and education. We make every effort to ensure that each child is able to learn by having opportunities to play and acquire new skills in a hands-on environment that is educational, stimulating, and safe to explore. We also integrate the Reggio Emilia-inspired philosophy into our curriculum. This approach acknowledges that all children are intelligent, competent and resourceful, and constantly construct meaning using a ‘hundred different languages.’
We aim to ensure that the children’s learning is holistic and supports growth across all domains: cognitive, physical, social, emotional and spiritual. Our curriculum combines the key philosophies of the Reggio-inspired approach, 21st century thinking skills, outdoor learning, and traditional teaching approaches.
We believe that relationships are integral to the learning process. Uplands Pre-Preparatory School establishes a strong network of relationships between the children, parents and teachers, in order to promote continuous communication. We see the teacher’s role as that of a listener and researcher, as they provoke occasions of discovery through inspired listening and join the children in their excitement and curiosity in creating, exploring and learning.
By incorporating the Reggio-inspired approach, our teaching styles are child-centred and are driven by the children’s interests. We believe that children should be given a voice in the direction and content of their learning, to ensure that they find their learning meaningful and joyful.
In keeping with the Reggio-inspired approach, we ensure that “the environment is the third teacher” – our indoor and outdoor learning environment is carefully constructed in a way conducive to children learning. We place great value on learning through play which our beautiful and spacious campus allows for. In a world where children have fewer opportunities to explore nature, we ensure that they have daily opportunities to be outside to enjoy creative play and explore natural materials.
