Building a Strong Foundation
Our Preschool, Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten programme provides children with an excellent start to their future academic career.
We encourage our students to work both individually and in cooperative groups in a variety of hands-on learning experiences. Fern Hill teachers understand and share the importance of all aspects of language – reading, writing, listening, and speaking – and they work with children on these essential skills and concepts that will form the foundation of their education.
Recognizing the importance of early development, Fern Hill has created programmes and spaces that stimulate learning and self-confidence. French, Music and Physical Education are taught by subject-specific teachers beginning in Preschool.
Fern Hill offers full-day and half-day programmes in Preschool and Junior Kindergarten. Senior Kindergarten is a full-day programme. All programmes are continued throughout a full week from Monday to Friday. A hot lunch programme and before and after school care are also available. Fern Hill is also pleased to offer after school activities from 4 p.m. – 5 p.m. There is no need to leave the campus to enrol in science, art or physical fitness programmes. The offerings vary each term and provide fun, enriching activities.
The Fern Hill Difference
Fern Hill’s youngest learners are into everything! We pride ourselves on offering a unique and rewarding learning experience for our young students. Inter-woven into every aspect of the curriculum are opportunities for the children to develop to their full potential … they truly experience the Fern Hill difference:
- Daily morning assembly
- Specialist instruction in Music, Math, French, Computers, and Physical Education
- School trips and community visitors
- Responsibility and leadership
- Cultural celebrations
- Anti-bullying and life management beginning in Junior Kindergarten
- House system sports and activities beginning in Senior Kindergarten
- Proven full-day programme delivering enriched and specialty classes for more than 29 years
- Continuum of learning through Language, Reading, Math and Culture
- After school programmes
- Small student-to-teacher ratio
- Enriched, customized curriculum
All Early Year students visit the library and participate in physical education, music and French classes on a weekly basis. Our youngest students also experience specialized classes in computers and life management beginning in Junior Kindergarten. Life management focuses on teaching and learning skills to help students identify their feelings and the feelings of others. Through role-playing and drama, the children are taught to recognize and resolve social conflicts and manage their frustrations. In the end, the children learn that they can often settle conflicts on their own. Transition, overlap and growth take place throughout the Early Years preparing them to enter Grade 1 as active and eager learners.
At Fern Hill there is no end to the learning process. Students enter a world where block towers become skyscrapers, computers become a canvas and where their imagination can take flight.
Challenging the Senses
“We consider that the period of early child development is equal to or, in some cases, greater in importance for the quality of the next generation than the periods children and youth spend in education or post-secondary education.”
- The Early Years Report by Dr. Fraser Mustard and Honourable Margaret McCain
The Early Years Report by Dr. Fraser Mustard and the Honourable Margaret McCain, and mandated by the provincial government, researched early child development by studying neuroscience, developmental psychology, human development, sociology, pediatrics, health, learning and economic growth in Canada, the United States and Europe.
Their research found that birth to age six is extremely important in the future learning, behaviour and health of our children. The report specifically mentions the importance of visual activities; emotional reactions; behaviours and responses; language and literacy. Fern Hill’s early years programme takes these findings into consideration and sets a sound foundation for
its students.
Our Early Years programme has been developed to challenge the individual child in all of these areas – recognizing that children develop at different rates and different times.
Fern Hill’s programme provides a natural progression throughout the years, and offers both an enriched and customized programme. Don’t be surprised when your Preschooler sings a French song, or begins reading or your Junior or Senior Kindergarten child tells you about a world event, or wows you with their math skills. Fern Hill is about learning and embarking on an educational journey that teaches math, science, language – and everything in between– through elaborate and dynamic teaching and learning techniques that captures each child’s imagination and ability to grow.