Preparatory School in Johannesburg, South Africa

Grayston Preparatory School, Johannesburg:
Grayston Preparatory is located at Corner North Road and Gillard Street, Sandown, Sandton, Johannesburg in South Africa. The inclusive curriculum at Grayston Preparatory ensures that your child will receive an education of genuine quality. The development of self-confidence and self-esteem is of crucial importance. Problem solving, critical thinking, decision making and life skills are key components of the academic strategies, preparing your child for the road ahead. We offer a preparatory school program for ages 5 - 13 years and provide a child-focused educational package based on the individual needs of the learner. We also offer English support for non-English speaking families. Grayston Preparatory School proudly goes forward, “Holding the Hand that Holds the Future”.

Preschool

Grayston Preparatory School boasts a fully functional Pre-Prep division. In this unit we have 3 groups of Grade R children, aged 5 / 6 years old; 2 groups of Grade 00 children, aged 4 / 5 years old and 1 group of Grade 000 children, aged 3 / 4 years old.

Our older children enjoy their special “Puzzles and Games” mornings when mom and dad are invited to come and work with all our children once a week. This system has provided the parents with many hours of enjoyment, allowing them to become involved with their own child’s development too. Also included in our school mornings is their delightful music programme. These times are fun and can become rather noisy and hectic whilst offering the children a sound musical background.

The children are taken through their paces during their ball skills, movement and swimming (Grade R) classes. Gymnastics is also offered after school as an extra-mural. Other Pre-Prep Co-Curricular activities include; tennis, ballet, karate, sportstec, golf, pottery, playball, monkeynastix, ruggakids, board games, swimming and creative arts. All activities are grade specific.

Our computer teacher leads the Grade R children into controlling the mouse and recognising the various directional keys on the keyboard. Later in the year they are introduced to a number of computer teaching programmes.

Here at Grayston we encourage interaction between the oldest and youngest learners within the Grayston family. Through our Care Bear programme we have developed a nurturing and caring environment in which our Grade 7’s and their Pregrade children enjoy a wonderful bond and understanding of each other.

The children are encouraged and guided by all their teachers, by means of the best possible perceptual programme. This involves the necessary Literacy, Numeracy and Life Skills curriculum. This curriculum prepares them for schooling and inevitably for life. At Grayston, we ensure that all Pre-Prep children benefit through a structured, yet informal, approach to learning. Learning, through play, is seen as a "way of life".

Junior Preparatory Phase
Children enter our Junior Preparatory in Grade One in the year in which they turn seven. Grades One, Two and Three form the Junior Preparatory Phase. We follow Outcomes Based Education, believing firmly in the advantages our learners gain from this problem-solving, co-operative approach. All eight learning areas receive attention in our integrated, inclusive curriculum.

The three Learning Programmes are:
- Literacy: This encompasses speaking, reading and writing in English. We also introduce Afrikaans as the first additional language and deal with this on an oral basis.

- Numeracy: This involves, amongst other things, number manipulation, problem-solving, measurement and data-handling.

- Lifeskills: This includes the other six learning areas of:
Life Orientation (including Physical Education); Economic Management Sciences; Arts and Culture (including Music, Drama and our internal cultural programme); Social Sciences; Natural Sciences; Technology (including Information Technology)

Our classes are heterogeneously composed. Well-qualified class teachers facilitate the learning experiences of the children. Specialist teachers in the fields of Physical Education, Information Technology and Music deal with those particular areas of the curriculum. Children are observed and assessed on a continuous basis in order that consolidation, remediation and extension can occur. Parents are kept informed of their children’s progress through a written report at the end of each term as well as regular parent-teacher consultations.

In order to make learning as exciting as possible, regular day excursions are planned for the children as well as invitations being extended to visiting theatre groups and people from the community to perform for or speak to the children. Children are also encouraged to become aware of the wider community, collecting Easter eggs for underprivileged children for instance.

All children participate in the afternoon sporting programme and play friendly interschool fixtures in cricket, football and netball. Children swim from Grade One and are eligible for the swimming team from Under 9. Competitive sport commences at Under 9 level.

We are proud of the structured and progressive programme that our children enjoy and are very fortunate to have the wonderful facilities which are provided for us.

Senior Prep Phase
The Senior Prep Phase is a nurturing and stimulating environment for children from Grades Four (aged 10) to Grade Seven (aged 13).

In Grades Four and Five we use a class teaching strategy where learners remain with their respective class educator for every learning area other than Art, Information Communication Technology, Physical Education, Music and Zulu. We employ specialist teachers for those particular aspects of our children’s education.

In Grades Six and Seven we use a subject teaching strategy where learners move to their respective educators’ classrooms.

The learning areas that form part of our inclusive curriculum are:
- Language, Literacy and Communication (English, Afrikaans and Zulu)
- Mathematics
- Social Sciences
- Natural Sciences
- Technology
- Economic Management Sciences
- Life Orientation
- Arts and Culture
- Information Communication Technology

We are fortunate indeed to have a computer and printer in every classroom in the Senior Prep as well as access to superbly equipped Computer Laboratories.

We have a dynamic entrepreneurship programme in which we prepare our Grayston learners for the future. We believe that many of the learners will be entrepreneurs and so need to know how to run a small business successfully. The emphasis is on producing original and creative products, running a successful marketing campaign and ensuring that sound financial practices are followed.