The first five years of your child’s life is critical, as this is the period in which early childhood development takes off. Parents can find it difficult to decide on when the best time is to send their child to school. No one wants to send their child to school prematurely, neither do they want to send them to school too late.

One of the things parents need to know about school readiness is that it involves two types of indicators: an eagerness to learn and an enthusiasm for school. School readiness is thus a measure of how prepared your child is to succeed at school. Check out these 5 key indicators of school readiness to look out for in your child:

1.Physical and Motor Development:

If your child is able to crawl or walk, it means that they are getting ready to explore their physical environment. Parents can look out for gross motor development, which includes running, skipping and standing on one leg. Furthermore, parents can look out for fine motor development in their child. When your child is comfortable using a pair of scissors, successfully able to use zips and buttons and they are able to use cutlery, this is an indicator of school readiness. Moreover, visual as well as auditory development and your child’s ability to take care of themselves by being able to go to the toilet alone, is another strong indicator of school readiness.

2.Emotional and Social Development:

A child who is emotionally well-adjusted has a significantly greater chance of early school success. Your child is most likely ready for school when they get along with their peers. They are ready for school when they can interact within a group, they show an interest in other children and they willing help others. Also, if your child can express feelings and needs, can sit still long enough to listen to a story and can concentrate on a task for a reasonable amount of time, they are most likely ready to be placed in a school.

3.Cognitive Development:

Every parent knows that mental ability is essential in the cognitive development of a child. How a child thinks, makes independent decisions and figures things out for themselves is a good indicator of school readiness. It is the ability to take direction and following instructions that helps children navigate the world around them and that also encourages an interest to learning.

4.Language Development:

A child is ready for school when they can express themselves through speaking and vocabulary as well as literacy and listening. Furthermore, they should be able to communicate effectively in their home language, be able to sequence or recite a story or a set of events comprehensibly, and identify similarities and differences between objects.

5.Emotional Development:

Last but not least, your child is most likely ready for school when they show emotional maturity. When your child can reasonably control their emotions and handle separation well, that means they can handle being in a school setting with other children. Other emotional development indicators include confidence, independence and displays of being responsible.

Sources:

https://helpmegrowmn.org/HMG/HelpfulRes/Articles/WhatMotorPhysicalDev/index.html#:~:text=Motor%20development%20means%20the%20physical,and%20touch%20his%2Fher%20surroundings.&text=Motor%20development%20is%20important%20throughout,tied%20to%20other%20development%20areas

On March 15 2020, the Kenyan government announced a national school lockdown in response to the rising cases of Covid-19 in the country and this caused some disruption to the Kenyan Academic Calendar. The students were at this time approaching the end of the first time and looking forward to the April holiday.

Six  months later  Grade 4, Class 8 and Form 4 classes re-opened while other classes awaited their start dates. The disruption to on-campus learning resulted in a change in the Kenyan academic calendar. Schools, students and parents were now going to face a new norm with new term dates.

The ministry of Education announced the new term dates late last year (2020) and this was in an effort to cover the remaining 2 terms from 2020 with the aim of stabilising the school calendar by December 2022. The changes to the calendar may be confusing and this post is written with the aim to help understand what these changes look like practically.

 

Concluding the 2020 Academic Calendar

Term 2 began on January 4th, 2021 (which in the past would have been Term 1 for the new academic year) and ended on March 19th, 2021.  Term 3 for the 2020 Academic Calendar will commence on May 10th and will close on July 25th. The 2020 calendar will close out on July 25th

 

Starting the 2021 Academic Calendar

The first  term of the 2021 calendar will commence on the  26th of July 2021 to 1st October,2021 after which the students will break for a 1 week holiday that will transition them to Term 2 which will start on 11th October,2021 to 23rd December,2021 this will be followed by a 10 day holiday and reopen for Term 3 as from 3rd January 2022, to 4th March.

 

Working to restabalise the calendar

Holidays to mark the end of 2021 Calendar will begin March 5th 2022 and end April 24th, 2022.

The KCPE period will begin March 7th 2022 and end March 10th, 2022. Then finally, the KCSE period will begin March 11th  until April 1st, 2022.

We look forward to welcoming students for the new 2021 Academic Year in July. Nova Pioneer is currently still enrolling for grades in both our Primary and Secondary Schools. To apply for Term 1,  click on (link) To begin the enrollment process for the 2021 Academic year beginning in July, please submit your application here (link)

We continue to follow the Government’s directive on COVID 19, to ensure our students and teammates safety while they are at school. (Link COVID preparedness blog)

 

 

The year 2020 will definitely be a year for books in the education sector across the world. From navigating having to switch to virtual classrooms in record time to grappling with the nuances of teaching within the new dynamics of a rapidly changing world. Schools have had to be on the receiving end of making crucial decisions on what works best for their learners during this time as we await news of reopening of schools. 

With the wake of the official announcement from the Cabinet Secretary of Education that Grade Four, Class Eight and Form Four candidates will be expected to report back to school on 12th October, many educators and families would be ruminating on how to best approach the evolving situations. There’s a myriad of factors to be considered during this period and it is even more crucial that different individual players come together and have open conversations on how to best tackle reopening of schools.

From the micro-level factors involving conversations and practices parents and guardians are having with their children on what their main concerns are, to the macro-level factors that involve conversations institutions should be having with their families about expected changes and how to best prepare for the same. 

It is resoundingly clear that we all need to lean into each other to meet the current moment and best prepare our students and teachers to emerge even stronger amidst the new normal. In our open house webinar session on 7th October, this topic was discussed at length with Gavin Esterhuizen – Executive Head, Nova Pioneer Ormonde Primary, Dr Benson Kairu, School Leader, Nova Pioneer Boys Sec. School, Tatu City, Grace Mukunzi, Dean of Residential Life, Nova Pioneer Girls Secondary School, Tatu City and Agnes Ng’ang’a parent to Pear and Keren (F4, Nova Pioneer Girls Sec. School, Tatu City

You can access the recording of the engaging session by clicking on the link above.