Preshil shares many similarities to the Philosophies of influential educational thinkers including Rudolf Steiner, Mary Montessori, John Dewey, Friedrich Froebel and our founding Principal, Greta Lyttle, providing progressive educational models that form the basis of our approach to learning.
Preshil is not only Australia’s oldest progressive school, but was also influential in the development of progressive pedagogy at the local, national and international levels. Seminal educationalists such as Alexander Neill, Dorothy Howard, Jean Stirrat, Oscar Oesor, June Factor, Dorothy Ross, Henry Schoenheimer and Elizabeth Hanby were influenced by Preshil, and the school’s child-centred and play-basedlearning is today recognised in mainstream pedagogy.
The kindergarten offers an exceptional program led by our highly experienced staff. The Kindergarten has achieved an overall ‘exceeding the national quality standard’ rating in all seven quality areas as part of The National Quality Framework Assessment.
Children’s learning is carefully planned to broaden and extend their experiences through intentional and guided inquiry with teachers, resulting in a free-flowing program. Learning is collaborative between children, their peers and their teachers, and experiences are approached with excitement, ownership and possibility. Preshil’s teaching approach is informed by current theory and research, enabling us to work innovatively with the children to challenge and develop their ideas and understandings in the context of imagination, creativity and play.
The program consists of a balance of collaborative projects, small-group teacher-led experiences and free play throughout the daily routine, with a focus on smooth transitions. Children are encouraged to learn by observing, questioning, discussing, wondering, doing, making, collaborating and expressing their thinking in ways that reflect their individuality, strengths and creativity. A love of books, stories, role play, reading and writing are cultivated and form the basis of Literacy, Numeracy and Science. Specialist Philosophy, Art, Music, French and Dance teachers work with the children each week alongside the core program.
Preshil’s progressive approach draws from Montessori and Froebel, from Steiner and Reggio Emilia, each one offering generative and ambitious elements to build on. But Preshil is not locked into a static, dogmatic approach shaped for a different place and time. We also draw on the work of Sir Kenneth Robinson and John Hattie.
Our approach has much in common with the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (PYP), being based on a strong commitment to conceptual and holistic learning and an inquiry approach. More than half of Preshil’s Arlington teachers have undertaken PYP training. It was this alignment with the values and pedagogy of the International Baccalaureate and a desire to build on it that first motivated the School’s adoption of the MYP at the Secondary School
At Arlington we embrace exciting new technologies, but discriminately, and our exceptional teachers collect and use many styles of data to plan their teaching and refine their understanding of the learning progress. As a team, we read, discuss, plan and collaborate to focus on the individual progress of each child.
The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) provides a framework of academic challenge for the Australian National Curriculum. The MYP encourages students to become critical and reflective thinkers, learners who identify and make connections between traditional subjects and the real world. Students develop a depth of knowledge and balance through the study of eight subjects fields:
tional subjects and the real world. Students develop a depth of knowledge and balance through the study of eight subjects fields:
Preshil’s community of learners is challenged to set goals that support them to reach their own academic potential. The IB learner profile emphasises the development of the whole person, actively cultivating the attributes of our students as inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, courageous, balanced and reflective, to become global citizens with an awareness of their common humanity.
SECONDARY CAMPUS
12—26 Sackville Street Kew, Victoria Australia 3101
Telephone: +61 3 9817 6135
Fax: +61 3 9816 7943
Email: preshil@preshil.vic.edu.au
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