Elm Early Education was founded in the year 2016 by Mrs.Harshitha Chandrakanth M.Sc, PGCE (University of Bolton, United Kingdom), Diploma in Montessori pre-primary (Associate Montessori Internationale, Netherlands), Mr. Arpan Patel (Former financial head at Koolmax Pvt.Ltd, United Kingdom), Dr.T.N. Chandrakanth, M.sc,Ph.D (Retired professor of Physics) and Mrs.Narmada.S, M.Com, LLB.
Elm Early Education school was started when we understood the strong potential within children within the age of six. Often the potential in a child from birth to six years is not acknowledged. Birth to six years act as key formative years in the holistic development of a child that requires scientific addressing through stimulating environment monitored by trained adults.
Elm Early Education is a venture by Southern Academy for Formal Education (SAFE) established in 1994 offering quality tutoring for students taking up 10th to 12th grade examinations and other competitive examinations such as CET, NEET, JEE etc. SAFE has nurtured over 36,000 success stories till date.
Our motto ‘Creating young independent and life-long learners’ was introduced by one of the School’s founders, Mrs. Harshitha Chandrakanth and underpins the values and ‘the art of learning’ we promote today, which are centered around responsibility, dedication, commitment, sense of identity, reliability, respect and co-operation.
We offer each and every child the opportunity to achieve his/her full potential in a caring community, which values its mix of abilities and interests. We recognize that each pupil’s school experience forms the basis for whichever path they choose to follow throughout the rest of their lives and so nurture and enrich the individual talents and skills that our children possess, to ensure that they leave us with the confidence and self-esteem to pursue their own personal ambitions.
"All children have an innate desire to learn"
We offer the diverse and experiential learning space and loving care for children within a warm and stimulating environment. It is important that each child is given the opportunity and encouragement to develop to their full potential. And to be able to cater to the physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs to transform the child into a complete Human being. To develop in children a sense of moral values which can form a framework for their own worth, and relationships with others, so they grow into becoming responsible members of the society.
Our curriculum is primarily inspired by Dr.Maria Montessori’s philosophy which follows the needs of a child.
We understand that when given a chance a child is capable of constructing their own learning in his/her own pace. This can be bestowed through an aesthetically rich and scientifically sound environment which at Elm we promise to offer.
A child with a purpose knowing what he wants to do next and is able to do it is the happiest. Out of this joy comes self-confidence & willingness to work. If such a child is equipped with the right tools, there is no stopping his way to excellence.
Research proves that Early Education is critical because:
Our curriculum focuses majorly on the following areas of development:
In order to meet our curriculum objectives, we take the children through a structured learning program for 4 years, which involves a lot of structured and focussed activities. No activity in the school is meaningless or done without a clear cut objective and outcome for the child.
In the 2 to 4 years category, we begin with fine motor and practical life skills. English is introduced with phonetics. Mathematics is introduced with materials that help the child comprehend this very abstract area. There are also a variety of activities that aid cognitive development and logical thinking.
In the 4 to 6 age group, children are taken through a program that covers fairly complex areas of language, mathematics, geography, history and science in a manner that will help them explore, discover and understand the fundamentals.
The curriculum provides many opportunities for children to make choices and decisions about their work. Children have the choice to work in small groups/ individually depending on their needs at different times.
During the course of working through the day, we constantly create opportunities for children to develop their language skills as well as focus on their emotional development. We encourage them to receive help from and offer help to other children, thus inculcating a sense of social awareness. Mixed age grouping also helps them become better learners.
We also lay emphasis on creating environmental awareness and help them develop practical skills like cutting, sieving and gardening. We also offer ample activities for development in the areas of art.
Physical development is not just about running around or cycling, it is taken very seriously and there are a series of activities that are designed keeping in mind the age and growth of the child.
Development in early years happens at a phenomenal speed and is constantly varying. Hence, assessment in early years has to be a continuous process. We have a system that constantly checks on the child's progress and helps us keep updates and records about the child more efficiently. This helps us share information with parents also on a regular basis. Constant assessment keeps the teachers completely keyed in with the progress of the child which enables us to keep challenging the child and hence we can avoid a situation where the child is bored or has lost interest.
We believe preschool education should give as much exposure as possible to the child in all areas of development. Appropriate stimulus is the key to early learning. Hence, the activities have been designed keeping the child in mind and ensuring there is “directional” play at all the time.
Elm activities include:
For a child below 6, curriculum comprises the environment which in turn means the tools that we offer the child to learn. It is essential that a young child gets daily experience with learning aids which have specific usage, derived from the curriculum.
All areas of work for the child, both internal and external have been planned with extreme care to facilitate self-learning, and implement the objectives set in the curriculum.
Our staffs are trained to ensure that the curriculum objectives for each child are met consistently without creating any disturbance in the child’s work or thought process. They are trained to facilitate learning, observe, record and assess on a daily basis. We have an appropriate student – teacher ratio to ensure that every child's needs are met without making him excessively dependent on an adult for learning.
Dr Maria Montessori was born in 1870 and 26 years later went on to become the first woman in Italy to become a qualified doctor. After qualifying, she was appointed assistant doctor in a clinic within the University of Rome to work and observe children in a scientific manner. Without the usual pre conceived educational ideas, she was able to create new techniques of education which would emphasise the “unique” development of each child. This has led to the Montessori Approach believing strongly in spontaneity and independence whereby the child is encouraged to select their own activities, explore and manipulate for themselves.
Research into this approach has shown that the earlier a child learns to interact with others, the more developed their social skills and confidence is in the future. A nursery of good standing – like Elm early education school, aids greatly in the development of the child. “All children have an innate desire to learn”. This philosophy enthused by Dr Maria Montessori is practised by the whole nursery through three Montessori principles. These are:-
These three principles guide teachers to “control the environment” and not the child. To look at the child as an unknown entity or being and allows the child’s true nature to freely emerge.
Early years are a unique stage of phenomenal brain development and learning in a child. The capacity to absorb concepts and learning is highest during this phase. According to Dr.Maria Montessori, a child between the ages of 0 and 6 years possess an absorbent mind that helps the child grasp every aspect of the environment holistically. Hence it is important to expose the child to a structured environment which will provide adequate, rich and appropriate stimulus for learning. Every child has an inherent nature and intelligence that is peculiar to him. This varies from child to child and is the most important factor to consider when the child comes to school.
A child’s first plane of development (0 to 6 years) is characterised by two vital powers: “absorbent mind” and “sensitive periods”.
The unconscious mind of a child is built first through the child’s interactions with his or her environment. From birth to 3, the child unconsciously acquires knowledge through interacting with his environment. This knowledge continues to build and as the child grows. Between 3 to 6 years, the conscious slowly takes over establishing memory, the power to understand, and the ability to reason.
We call this process the absorbent mind, because the child essentially absorbs information about his or her environment unconsciously from birth to three and between three to six the child makes sense and gives meaning to their learning while continuing to acquire more. These two periods, birth to 3 and 3 to 6, are called sensitive periods.
A sensitive period is a block of time in the child’s life when they are absorbed with one characteristic of their environment to the exclusion of all others. Once a sensitive period has passed, it will never return in the same way. The child is still able to learn the skill, but with greater difficulty.
Key Identifiers of a Sensitive Period:
