After the summer holidays, September is a month to get back into the busy rhythm of the school year. Everyone — children (new and returning), staff and parents — needs time to adapt to the busy school schedule. So when your children cry on arrival, we don’t take it as a sign that they aren’t enjoying themselves in our class: once they come in, rest assured, we observe them to be quite happy. In Infant Community they are all eager to acquire new skills and to practise the ones they already have.
In our Infant Community classes we have already achieved environments where the children work in silence. As each child is working individually, a quiet and calm environment helps them concentrate better. These first days of school we help them develop grace and courtesy and learn how to respect the group. In our environments there is one of each material, as in the real world: if something is being used and they want to use it, they will need to be patient and take it when their classmate has finished. We show them how to tidy up and return the material to the shelf, as well as how to push in their chair as a sign that they have finished working. These customs are designed not only to nurture autonomy but also to foster the respect needed to work in a community.
We have many children in both Infant Community classes who were here last year, in the same class or coming up from Nido. We have also welcomed plenty of new children to school. Veterans and novices alike have had to get accustomed to the routines and daily habits of Infant Community, and we are all impressed with how smoothly it is going for them. There are already moments of pride in the work they have accomplished in such a short amount of time, and everyone is eager for what is to come in the 2026–27 school year.
