Have you ever just sat beside your child and watched him as he slept? Have you ever wondered what path life will take him down? Have you ever wondered what he dreams about when he sleeps? These are questions all parents ponder upon. No one knows what life has in store for us. While we cannot predict the future, we as parents can at least influence it by providing the best we can.
Situated in the bustling and affluent township that is Mont Kiara, Junior Champs is a preschool that understands the needs and requirements of an all-rounded and holistic preschool education for children today. And through the clever use of glass, lighting, colours and layout, Junior Champs has created a wonderful space that is at once nurturing and calming, an environment where any child would be happy to be in.
Following the best traditions of a well-run establishment, Junior Champs offers an inclusive vision of a preschool education that is both meaningful and appropriate for the children of today. Given the diversity of nationalities, cultures and traditions in its immediate vicinity, children at Junior Champs are introduced to resources that will enable them to move beyond everyday lessons, to critically analyse causes and effects, and recognize similarities and differences. And to question not just the who, the what and the where, but also the why and the how. All the activities and lessons have been devised so that the children’s class time is more engaging and effective.
In a calm and quiet environment surrounded by lush greenery, Junior Champs provides a conducive and nurturing setting in which the children are engaged and empowered to explore, discover and be creative.
Curriculum
The curriculum framework at Junior Champs incorporates the most current and advanced global practices in early childhood education – the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), the British National curriculum. There are four guiding principles in this early years setting:
- every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured
- children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships
- children learn and develop well in enabling environments, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and there is a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or caregivers
- children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.
The most wonderful aspect of the curriculum at Junior Champs is that it is bilingual (English and Mandarin). Besides the academic facet of schooling, Junior Champs also focuses on the character building of the individual child.
Unique Features
In an environment where the best practices of the EYFS and Reggio Emilia are adopted, teachers focus on each child’s best interest and provide support and understanding for the child individually. The overall goal of early childhood education in Junior Champs is to help the children gain independence as they develop. Being the first preschool in the country to support Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Learning Theory, children in Junior Champs work closely with classmates of different ages in a learning zone. Younger classmates can learn from older ones, and older classmates can mature by helping their younger peers. This aids not only their learning and cognitive development, but also their social maturity.
Junior Champs is one of only a handful of preschools that has created an environment where learning is child-led. With their deep knowledge of the EYFS, teachers at Junior Champs are adept at spotting and grasping a perceived "teachable moment". At its core is the assumption that children form their own personality during their early years of development and are endowed with a "hundred languages", through which they can express their ideas and thoughts. The aim is to teach the children how to use these symbolic languages such as painting, sculpting, puppetry and drama in everyday life - creating a small thematic world while mimicking real world experiences.
- Programmes that inspire character building
- Integrated environment of the best of different practices
- Reggio Emilia child-led projects that develop leadership skills, self-confidence and independence, unleash creativity and a sense of achievement
- Initiating open-ended questions
- Play-based learning
- Every child will receive a comprehensive Learning Journal at the end of the year that record their learning progress and milestones
Facilities
The classrooms are full of different stations and materials designed to be stimulating for students to encourage their motivation to learn. Due to the complete individualization of the learning process, children are grouped not by age but by cognitive level. This flexible system removes the pressure to advance quickly, allowing the children to live and experience fully their precious childhood years.
Another one of the many unique features of Junior Champs is its large outdoor green area for exercises and waterplay. Being fully airconditioned, a gentle cooling breeze can be felt throughout the preschool. And with reading and book corners spread throughout this spacious and well-resourced preschool, Junior Champs is definitely an excellent choice as your child’s preschool.
- Enriching and enabling environment
- Spacious and safe outdoor space
- Library with a wide selection of children books
- Cozy reading corners
- Fully airconditioned environment
At Junior Champs, they understand that different children have different needs and are at different developmental stages and that every one of them have their own designated role. Having created an enabling and enriching environment, Junior Champs will help the children to understand, guide them to think and encourage them to succeed.
