Early learning and junior school
Early Years
The Early Years of Tagai State College provides students enrolled in Kindergarten to Year 3 with a supportive learning environment in which they begin to explore and learn.
Tagai State College is committed to every student achieving the essential literacy, numeracy, oral language and health skills fundamental to their development. To deliver on this commitment, our Early Years Curriculum is founded on the following:
- Knowledge of early childhood development.
- Building partnerships with students, families and communities.
- Establishing flexible learning environments.
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Creating engaging contexts for learning and skill development.
Attending
Strait Start enables children to benefit from quality early learning experiences, by making new friends, improving their social, emotional, speech, language and physical skills and building a connection with the school along the way. Children can access Strait Start from 12 weeks of age, through to four years of age.
Tagai State College's Kindergarten programs are based on the
Queensland kindergarten learning guideline which provides advice for planning, interacting with children, monitoring and assessing learning. Teachers engage children in active, language rich learning through play, real-life engagements, routines and transitions. Foundations for Success is a resource which acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' ways of knowing and being and supports the embedding of personal and cultural identities and connections with families and communities in the learning program.
Our Kindergarten programs further develop children's thinking and problem-solving skills as well as their language, social and creative capabilities. These skills form the foundations for engaging in the content of the Foundation – Year 2 requirements of the Australian Curriculum, supporting continuity of learning for children across Kindergarten to Year 2 and a successful transition to Prep.
In Kindergarten, children must be turning 4 years of age by June 30, in the year that they register. There is no opportunity for early entry into the Kindergarten program. Use the
kindy calculator to see when your child can start Kindergarten.
English
At Tagai State College, we prioritise the teaching of reading. We believe that the skill of being able to read underpins all other learning. The Balanced Reading Program at each campus includes modelled reading, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. Each campus delivers Sound Waves as their systematically taught phonics program. This phonics program is embedded into all aspects of early literacy, enabling our students to have a robust acquisition of phonological awareness.
Tagai State College implements Language for Learning (L4L) units as a component of the English curriculum. Language for Learning units are differentiated for learners of Standard Australian English.
Mathematics
At Tagai State College, our mathematics program is organised around the interaction of three content strands and four proficiency strands linked to the Australian Curriculum. The content strands are Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability. The proficiency strands are Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving, and Reasoning.
We prioritise the teaching of Number within Mathematics as we believe it is important to equip our students with a solid base in Number. For the early years phase of mathematics, we encourage the use of concrete materials to investigate and consolidate mathematical understanding.
Science
At Tagai State College, we implement Primary Connections science units to meet the Australian Curriculum. Each year level covers a unit from Biological Science, Chemical Science, Earth and Space Science and Physical Science over the school year.