WHY CHOOSE
MIDLANDS PRE-PRIMARY
Midlands Pre-Primary school (MLPP is a parallel medium school).
THE RURAL ATMOSPHERE
of the Estate is reflected in MLPP’s beautiful grounds and Bondev Developments’ vision for the school, namely to create a place where toddlers can feel safe and secure, is echoed in the building’s half-moon shape.
“HAPPY TODDLERS GEARED FOR TOMORROW”
The motto has two components, namely “happy” and “geared for tomorrow”. While all training, planning and motivation have this focus point, the overall objective of all training at MLPP is that TODDLERS LEARN THROUGH PLAY.
CHILDREN FROM THE AGES OF 3 TO 6 YEARS
Our programmes provide opportunities to foster children’s emotional, social, intellectual, physical, spiritual and moral development. Exploration and discovery within a framework of a personal and social responsibility are emphasized, while each child’s progress is closely monitored.
SCHOOL HAS A CHRISTIAN ETHOS
Against this background, children are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, to accept reasonable limits and to respect others’ rights.
MLPP OFFERS: Emotional safety and security, a rural atmosphere, stimulation opportunities for play, enthusiastic movement, intellectual challenges, spiritual anchors and meaningful relationships.
24
TEACHERS
962
ENROLLED LEARNERS
1858
WORKING HOURS
365
DAYS OF THE YEAR
Jean-Jacques Rosseau mentions in his book, Emile: “Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling, and nothing is more foolish than to substitute ours for theirs.” In his book, The Hurried Child, Prof David Elkend warns parents and teachers against wanting children to grow up too quickly. For this he blames professional and non-professional educationalists who, in the sixties, bombarded parents of young children with wrong information regarding their children’s brain potential. According to this information, parents would miss the golden opportunity of optimally developing their children’s cognitive abilities if they did not start with education as early as possible.
He continues to point out the negative consequences of pressurising children and refers to research indicating that many of the problems today’s teenagers and youngsters grapple with area direct result of pressure to transform young children into ‘super kids’. He emphasises the value of play for the young child and quotes researchers such as Freud, Erikson and Montessori in this regard. Dr M. de Witt further reinforces this by showing that play is accompanied by movement. In fact, for children younger than 7 to 8 years, movement of his body is the most important way of learning. “…Deur sy bewegende, aktiewe liggaam leer die kind sy wereld verken…” {From: Die Klein Kind in Fokus.)
Writers such as Prof David Gallahue also emphasises the importance of movement and agree with Elkend by referring to the pressure on children to participate competitively in sport. “…If we as educators are aware of the importance of learning to move effectively and efficiently in a variety of ways through our environment and possess an understanding of the developmental characteristics of children, we must then reject the notion that specialised skill development is one of the purposes of the regular physical educational program at this level…” (From: A Conceptual approach to moving and learning).
MLPP’s grounds are divided into different areas: