Curriculums | Pre School, Prep & College

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Our Reggio Emilia Inspired Approach

Post-World War 2 parents were determined to create a more hopeful and sustainable future for the children of Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy. The community rallied to build the very first nursery school. Many years later a group of schools in the Reggio Emilia area were voted the best schools in the world. This prestigious accolade sparked great international interest, which resulted in more countries beginning to explore and apply the Reggio Emilia teaching approach. Today the Inspired group, made up of over 25 schools across the globe, embraces this approach as we successfully integrate the philosophy into our Early Learning School.

Inspired Learning

Our Reggio Emilia inspired approach portrays a unique view of the child: each seen as beautiful, powerful, competent, creative, curious, and full of potential.

Placed at the centre of the curriculum, children are encouraged to select and explore topics and activities for themselves, developing deeper engagement from the child, building independence, and stimulating curiosity.

Rather than being seen as the target of instruction, children are seen as having the active role of an apprentice and researcher. A lot of our activities take the form of projects where children have opportunities to explore, observe, hypothesize, question, and discuss to clarify their understanding. Children are also viewed as social beings and focus is on the child in relation to other children, the family, the teachers, and the community rather than on each child in isolation.

Teachers & Parents

Early Learning School teachers are handpicked and rigorously trained to ensure children at all levels are enthused and provided with the tools to self-motivate their own learning journey.

Through observation, teachers become acutely aware of each child’s individual needs and latent potential as they constantly engage through attentive listening and observation of the child’s interests, concerns or ideas. Our teachers challenge the children to deepen their understanding and ultimately identify the endless possibilities to their thinking.

Teachers plan rigorously, yet are flexible, for on-going projects and explorations, whilst still covering the prescribed curriculum. Materials and resources are carefully chosen to inspire inquiring minds and build skills.

Classroom Environment

The children’s environment - both indoor and outdoor – is considered the ‘third teacher’.

Care and consideration are given to the layout and design of the indoor and outdoor environment. These spaces aim to stimulate our children’s imagination, creativity, exploration, discovery, engagement and sense of wonder. Open-ended materials are frequently used; these allow for spontaneous and unguided responses.

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Junior Preparatory

Reddford House offers students a superlative holistic educational programme, which offers a broad range of academic, cultural and sporting activities.

Our teaching and learning programme reflect your child’s educational journey within a group setting. We offer a rich morning at school that includes a balance of both class teaching and specialist subjects. The students are actively involved in meaningful provocations that incorporate all areas of learning and development. The weekly class newsletter is a part of our documentation process and provides important information about our children’s learning process.

Although Reddford House follows the requirements of the South African National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), our curriculum is enriched and extended in our Reggio Emilia-inspired approach in Grades 1 to 3; the assessment and curriculum guidelines of the Independent Examination Board (IEB); subject specialist teaching and the incorporation of additional subjects like Additional Mathematics Extension and Robotics.

The academic timetable and the afternoon activities of the school function on a weekly programme and sports practices and fixtures are scheduled accordingly.

Senior Preparatory

As our students enter this Phase in Grade 4, they are exposed to a more formalised educational environment; although being educated in a number of core learning areas, they are also taught other key subjects by specialist teachers, giving them the opportunity and exposure to develop in non-traditional subjects.

From Grade 4 onwards students are required to select between Afrikaans and IsiZulu as their First Additional Language choice. Along with the academic subjects, a strong focus is placed on our Arts and Culture learning programme, as students discover their inner voice and creative self through Visual Arts, Music, Creative Dance and Drama.

Grade 5 –7 students are taught by specialist teachers and move between classrooms for various subjects. Each student will be required to own a personal iPad Pro. Certain textbook are also available in the form of eBooks to be loaded onto your child’s iPad. Daily use will promote the idea of technology and learning.

We offer an active academic programme under the scaffold of the South African National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). Our curriculum is enriched and extended to follow the assessment and curriculum guidelines of the Independent Examination Board (IEB).

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Reddford House provides a well-rounded educational programme. We offer subjects in all eight learning areas of the National Curriculum, with a wide variety of subjects available in Grades 10 – 12. Reddford House is affiliated to the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) with matrics writing the IEB National Senior Certificate examination.

Certain textbooks are also available in the form of eBooks to be loaded onto your child’s iPad.

Reddford House not only provides students with an excellent academic education but also exposes them to the enriching world of the Arts. A vibrant Music, Dance and Drama programme is on offer and forms an integrated part of the curriculum.

Physical Education lessons are also an important aspect of the learning experience; these are offered during the school day as part of the Life Orientation curriculum.

Subject specialist teaching and the incorporation of additional subjects like Advanced Programme Mathematics, Public Speaking, Music, Visual Arts, Drama and Dance contribute to the richness of our world-renowned curriculum.