Curriculum
Practical Life
When your child first arrives at Ridley Hall they will be given the opportunity to develop important life skills, which will allow them greater freedom in the classroom. They will learn to manage their own clothes using dressing frames to practise buttons, zips and bows. Your child will be shown how to care for their classroom, using child-sized brushes and dusters. They will develop practical skills, like pouring drinks from a jug and laying tables. This wide range of simple activities will allow your child to develop independence, concentration, motor skills and co-ordination, self-esteem, social awareness and skills.
Sensorial
Your child’s first learning is through the senses, at Ridley Hall they will be offered a range of sensorial materials designed to help children sort, match and compare objects by shape, size, touch, taste and sound. These sensorial exercises will help to refine and sharpen their five senses, increase their powers of observation and discrimination, broaden their vocabulary and contribute to their later understanding of formal educational concepts. All the sensorial materials are preparing the child for the other areas of the Montessori curriculum, maths, language and cultural.
Language
The Montessori language materials are based on a carefully structured phonic approach to writing and reading, which are widely recognised for their excellence. At Ridley Hall your child will initially learn through their senses, tracing sandpaper letters with their fingers as we tell them the sounds. Soon your child will be writing simple words with moveable letters, they will match words with objects and begin to read their first stories in phonic reading books. (When asked how they learned to read and write Montessori children will often answer, "I did it myself.")
Mathematics
Montessori mathematic materials at Ridley Hall will give your child the opportunity to talk about, touch and experiment with mathematical concepts. The materials are simple and interesting, they will help your child to understand particular qualities and concepts such as weight, height, measurement, size and comparisons. They are also self-correcting, which means that children can see if they have made a mistake and can correct it without having to ask for a teacher's help. This allows the children to progress at their own rate and to thoroughly understand each stage before they move on to the next stage.
Cultural
The Montessori Cultural activities will offer your child the opportunity to use globes, puzzle maps and many other exciting activities, which build their understanding of other countries, cultures and people. Your child will be taught to match, classify and name the elements and species of the natural world, using picture and name cards. The children will learn about the care of pets and will have the opportunity to garden in the outside area at Ridley Hall using child size gardening tools. All of the activities will add to your child’s knowledge and understanding of the World, about biology, geography, history, science, the natural and man-made environment, and the difference between them.
Creative
At Ridley Hall children will have access to a wide range of creative activities including art, music and movement, drama, role-play, cooking and gardening, all of which are not only highly enjoyable but will allow your child to develop many skills. These will include self-confidence, turn taking, imagination, gross and fine motor skills.
Physical
Your child will be given the opportunity on a daily basis, subject to the Great British weather, to play in our lovely outside area. We will offer a range of outside equipment and activities, including gardening. If the weather makes it impossible for us to venture outside we will offer the children a range of indoor physical activities.
Social and Emotional
Your child will develop these skills with friends and teachers, through all the Practical Life activities, registration, show and tell and sharing snack times.
We hope that you will notice from reading through our prospectus that here at Ridley Hall, social and emotional development is an area that we promote strongly, through the many varied activities that are available to your child.