Lower School

At the age of six, children enter Class One, beginning their journey through the eight years of the Lower School. To guide them through this heart of their childhood, a class teacher is appointed, whose task it is to lead the children through the acquisition of skills, the sequencees of learning and the stages of emotional development. Moral values and social ethics are fundamental to the education and are taught not only throughout the curriculum, but also by the living example of the social dynamics of the class, in which each child is valued as unique.

Throughout this period, a strong relationship with the class teacher, based on respect, mutual trust and understanding is nurtured. The security and permanence of the class teacher’s presence produces a climate of openness and attention which is highly conducive to sustained learning and healthy inner growth.

Main Lesson

For a period of nearly two hours every morning, the class teacher works with his/her class, initially teaching them to write, read and count, to draw and sing and play a musical instrument, telling them stories and putting on plays.

In subsequent years, topics such as house-building, farming, grammer, fractions, geometry, astronomy, history, geography and the sciences are also explored, each new area being introduced to coincide with the inner developmental readiness of the children. Because the same class teacher teaches all these subjects, there is ample scope for cross-curricular themes to develop.

For each “main lesson”, as these blocks are called, the children make their own work books, consisting of written and illustrative work. In all subjects, careful presentation and a sense of beauty are encouraged.

Nourishing the Imagination

Abstract concepts, brought to children at too early an age, are like dry crusts. Real nourishment, in these pre-puberty years, is given by lively, imaginative teaching, which presents each new topic or idea as a picture to stimulate the child’s ever-hungry imagination. Each new subject is brought to the children through the portal of feelings, for only then will they be fully engaged. By nurturing our pupils in this way, we aim to enable them, when the time is ripe, to exercise sound judgement and to think freely and creatively for themselves throughout their lives.