St Joseph's Marist College
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Pre-Primary
About Pre-primary

The Pre-primary Phase also offers Mainstream and Montessori education in a warm and nurturing environment. The Mainstream class caters for children from the age of 4 to 6 years, while the Montessori class includes children from the age of 3 – 6 years.

The day officially starts at 08:30, with Grade R’s starting at 08:00 and finishes and 12:30. Supervision is available in the Pre-primary area from 07:30.

At the end of their school day, children can either go home, participate in the private extra murals offered at school or stay at our Aftercare facility.

Qualified and experienced teachers plan the pre-primary programme, which emphasizes the development of skills and values. An assistant helps the teacher in each class.

At Pre-primary level, the programme is tailored to encourage the development of:
  • independence and co-operation
  • physical development and dexterity
  • a love of learning and enquiry

A typical school week includes:

  • Religious Education classes
  • Weekly computer lessons following the comprehensive Computer-4-Kids programme for the five and six year olds
  • Half an hour of conversational Xhosa
  • Music and movement
  • Class swimming in summer
  • Outings and regular visits to the Library

A full-time education support teacher, as well as an occupational therapist and speech therapist are available on the campus.

In the second half of the Grade R year, a developmental assessment (school readiness test) is conducted on those children due to turn six between January and June to ascertain whether they would be ready to begin Grade 1 in the following year. Written feedback is given to parents. During the first two to three weeks of the beginning of Grade 1 a baseline assessment is conducted on all children in order to establish which skills are in place and which need consolidating.