~ Loris Malaguzzi
We don’t believe in long days filled with extra murals but rather that children should be free to play in the afternoon and have down time. As such we have intra-murals as part of our daily school programme. These include:
Field trips are a key component of our school week and learning as they broaden the educational experience and make learning more relevant.
Our Field trips generally occur on Fridays and we have found how powerful they are in connecting the dots for the children by providing real experiences related to all content areas they are exploring in the classroom.
Field trips enrich and expand the curriculum, strengthen observation skills by immersing children into sensory activities, increase children’s knowledge in a particular subject area and expand children’s awareness of their own community.
A focus on arts integration and project-based learning teaches children to explore real-world problems and challenges. Teaching in such a contextual manner promotes collaboration, critical thinking and knowledge retention.
We subscribe to a minimal homework policy. We don’t want our children to do hours of homework – it is important that children go home and play and engage in activities that interest them such as sport, cooking, music or just quiet time. Our home-links are sent home to engage the parents and children in a community of inquiry and promote curiosity, creative thinking, logical skill-building and discussion techniques. These activities emerge during the week and are inspired by the children’s line of inquiry. They are not daily links and occur in line with the children’s enthusiasm for a learning area. We do however encourage daily reading where families and the children read together. This is not homework but an underlying value at Maara House to develop a love of reading.
