St. Christopher s Kindergarten and Preparatory News Letter

Transcription

1 St. Christopher s Kindergarten and Preparatory News Letter Week 8 Newsletter FROM THE HEAD TEACHER S DESK Week nine is here with us and the exams are just around the corner. The teachers have been talking to the children about revision and exams preparation. I hope that now the revision timetables are up on the kitchen walls and that the children are going over concepts that have been taught. Parents are encouraged to create a conducive environment at home where meaningful studying can happen. This week saw our first ever youngest campers go out for camping! We are all very proud of the year one children who were brave enough to spend a night away from their mums and dads at Karen Camp. They gained a lot of independence with this camp and a lot of learning also happened. We thank the parents for trusting their little ones with us. The school has received students from York St. John University in the UK who are on a teaching practice here at St. Christopher s. They are here to learn but have also brought lot of experience, ideas and have been supporting the learning program here. This year s Prep School Production titled The Most Epic Birthday Party Ever! will be held on Friday 16th June from 1.30 pm to 2.30 pm. All parents are invited to come and enjoy the show.

2 Left to right: Charlotte Wilson (Y3 JN), Bethany Jones (Y6 EG), Bethany Hargreaves (Y5 FO), Katie Eyre (Y1 JN), Lydia Brewster (Y2 BM). We have all been made to feel very welcome from staff, students and parents and look forward to the new experiences and opportunities that come with spending time at St Christopher's School. These are students from the UK going into their third year at York St John University, studying Primary Education (Ages 5-11). All of them have had 2 years worth of school placement experience acting as class teachers to Years 1-6. Some of them have experience in special educational needs and disabilities schools, with others working with children who have English as an additional language. They are all skilled in various sports, music and creative subjects and hope to get involved with any extra-curricular activities possible. Their aim of coming to Kenya is to observe how the British curriculum is used here, and what techniques can be applied back in the UK. From being trained with the British National Curriculum, they hope to provide more ideas for the teachers and explain how to use the schemes of work in the different years.

3 One of the best moments in a scout s life is when he/she is able to endure challenges put before them. This year s hiking challenge saw the year one students making it to the top ahead of their fellow scouts members. All scouts managed to pull through the harsh climatic conditions at Corner Baridi by carrying out warm up activities. The scouts were also taught basic skills such as how to preserve the environment, First Aid, personal hygiene, responsibilities of body and personal items.

4 THE YEAR 4 TRIP The first destination was Karen Blixen Museum, where the students got to learn about the history of the house which began in 1900s to the connection of how the whole area of Karen came to be. There were many pictures of Karen and her husband and her trusted servants. The grounds, which feature original equipment from the coffee farm, are also available for touring. There is also a gift shop. Later on we went to mamba village, where we saw reptiles like crocodiles and tortoises and learnt some fascinating facts about them e.g. crocodiles have no tongues. The last destination was Royal Hotel where we had a good time swimming and making merry. The day finally ended at 3:00pm when we embarked on our journey back to school. This week the year four class has been busy learning, getting ready for the end of year exams. This week they have been covering Volcanoes and Earthquakes in Geography.

5 4CO Birthdays; Happy birthday Salmah and Marcus Everyone enjoyed and were very grateful to the parents.

6 Multisensory learning approach Learning is like building a house, unless you lay a strong foundation there will be cracks and eventually the walls will collapse. Likewise learning needs to have the proper foundation. This helps an individual to benefit in the course of reading, writing and arithmetic. If the foundation is not laid properly learning cracks and gaps will soon appear. Every individual is different in the way they learn and the rate at which they do it. Different individuals have different learning styles. There are those who learn best by seeing, that is they remember best the things they see. These kind of learners are called Visual learners. There are others who remember best the things they heard. They are called auditory learners. Yet others remember best by doing. These kind of learners are called kinesthetic learners. Without ignoring the fact of the above learning styles, multisensory learning approach develops foundational skills of reading, spelling, writing and mathematics using all the senses. This helps the learner to acquire and retain information using more than one sense. This is particularly important because it prepares the learner for the real world. In the real world a learner needs to be able to use multiple senses to acquire and respond to information. Multisensory learning approach therefore improves not only the learner s strength but also his or her weaknesses. When an individual learns to use all the senses his ear eventually comes to the aid of his eye and his hand to the aid his ear. This opens three channels of his mind rather than one only. Multisensory learning approach seeks to provide foundational and fundamental skills. It is based on the principle that, learning does not take place in a single level but on structured levels from the lowest to the highest. No child can start school from the University however gifted that child might be. Every child has to start from the first class and progress year after another until to the highest level. Unless a child has mastered a sufficient amount of learning in one level, he or she will have no firm base on which to build knowledge for the following year. He will therefore make no progress. A practical and simple example is of a child who has not learnt how to count before learning to add and subtract. It does not matter the amount of effort or expertise put into teaching the addition and subtraction to this child, but it will all be impossible. In the same way, there are skills that an individual must have before he/she benefits from a course in reading. Multisensory learning approach enables a learner to overcome learning obstacles and reach his/her full potential in: cognitive ability, concentration, perception, memory, logical thinking and in reading, spelling, writing and mathematics. Multisensory learning approach works well for all learners. These include learners with; learning difficulties, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, gifted. Esther Mwangi Special Educational Needs Department

7 SPORTS On the 26th May our U9 boys rugby team won both matches at home against Brookhouse and Nairobi academy... Team A won 15-5 against Brookhouse and against Nairobi academy Team B won by 40-0 against Nairobi academy and 50-5 against Brookhouse. On Tuesday 7th June, Our U11 did very well against Braeside and Rusinga... Team A won by 34-0 against Braeside and 44-0 against Rusinga... Team B won by against Braeside... Congratulations to all the teams

8 Kindergarten Corner

9 Rainbow class busy at work sticking on, sound i

10 DATE Event Time 16 June U11 Boys Rugby/Netball V 2.00pm-3.00pm GEMS (Home) 16 June Prep School Production 1.30pm-2.30pm 17 June Davidson Ngini Rugby St. C 18 June Turi 7s Rugby & Netball Tournament 18 June End of Term Exams Begin Prep & Sec 9.00am-2.00pm 9.00am 21 June Trip-Y2-Lukenya 9.00am 22 June Cricket/Rounders/Athletics Premier Academy 9.00 am 24 June KAIIS League Finals XV 2.00pm 24 June Day Trip-Boarders Rock Hell s gate depart 6.00am 25 June U11 Girls Netball Nrb Aca 25 June U9 Girls Netball 5s BGE 9.00am 9.00am