Early Childhood Years Programme

We are not “just playing”

The Early Childhood programme at ISL Qatar emphasizes the power of learning through play. Children are provided with opportunities to explore, make investigations and discover their world.

Why play?

Play is the way children develop their understanding about the world. As children are provided with opportunities to play they are:

• trying new ideas,
• finding out about things,
• reinforcing knowledge and skills,
• thinking imaginatively,
• exploring their feelings and learning to control their emotions and
• taking risks.

How do we support play at ISL Qatar?

Through our interactions - There is a vital connection between interactions and learning. Teachers play a key role in developing and supporting children’s thinking, reasoning and communication. We do this through:

• our discussions with children,
• questions posed to our students,
• encouragement of the ideas and feelings of each individual as well as
• the integration of the thoughts and opinions of every student into our planning.

Through the use of our environments - Learning is impacted by how the space, equipment and materials are arranged. We believe in using our environments as the third educator as it has the potential to spark and sustain learning as well as foster healthy relationships. We purposefully arrange the learning spaces and organize the materials to stimulate and engage children into deeper and more complex types of play. Our environments provoke our students to initiate questions, emotions, ideas and questions.

Through home-school connections - We believe in the importance of family commitment and active involvement in children’s learning. Positive relationships between families-teachers-children are developed through our open communication and sharing of the learning journey.

Play is the way we learn!

Through play we practice different ways of representing reality and creating symbols. These are the same representational and symbolic processes needed for reading and writing.

Through play we practice different ways of representing reality and creating symbols. These are the same representational and symbolic processes needed for reading and writing.	When we play with blocks, we learn about balance, shapes and size.
-Social skills: cooperating and respecting others -Communication skills: listening and speaking -Self-management skills: codes of behavior	Versatility. Imagination. Inventiveness.