FAQ

Q1. What are the school timings?

Depending on the age of your child, there are a number of possibilities.

Pre-Nursery (2 year olds): 3 or 5 days a week; half day (08:30 – 12:00), full day (08:30 – 14:00)

Nursery (3 year olds): 5 days a week; half day (08:30 – 12:00), full day (08:30 – 14:00)

PS1 & PS2 (4 and 5 year olds): full day (08:30 – 14:00)

Please note that if your child is in Pre-Nursery and you choose the 3 day option, the days of attendance that you select are fixed and cannot change until you increase the number of days to 5.  

Q2. Do you provide transportation?

Due to safety regulations, we do not provide transportation of any kind. We urge parents to be punctual with regards to drop-off and pick-up times. If your child is being picked up by a nanny/friend/sibling/going home with another child’s parent, kindly inform the Front Desk, as well as the homeroom teacher.

Q3. Do you provide any catering? What about heating food?

We do not provide catering of any kind. Nor do we have facilities to warm up food. We advise parents to pack healthy lunches for their children e.g. no fizzy drinks, no nuts, no pork, no chocolates, no crisps and no fast food.

Please also note that if your child has a birthday at school, no cakes or party favours are to be brought in.

Q4. Is potty training a must?

Potty training for Pre-Nursery is not compulsory. We have nannies on-hand to change the children when needed. However, we ask parents to provide us with a change of clothes and nappy bag so that we are prepared should the child need a change.

For Nursery, PS1 and PS2, potty training is compulsory. We still suggest that parents provide us with spare clothes should an accident occur. However, children will not be accepted into these levels if they are not potty trained.

Q5. What Curriculum does the school follow? What is it about?

It’s the International Curriculum for Languages and Creative Arts – the ICLCA. Essentially, it’s a tailor-made curriculum created by our Director – the founder of TCG. It’s completely unique in Early Childhood Education. The focus is on languages (English/French and English/Arabic) and creative arts, which means we offer a bilingual programme with two languages of instruction to children from our Nursery level (3 – 4 year olds) until PS2 (KG2). The creative emphasis means we do a lot of art to encourage children’s imaginations and creativity. For more information, please visit www.iclca.org.

Q6. Does my child need to be fluent in the languages you teach before joining you?

It is recommended that children in Nursery, PS1 and PS2 have knowledge of English and at least one other language (French or Arabic).

For Pre-Nursery, children do not have to have prior fluency in any language.

Q7. What exactly do they do in the classroom?

Various topics are covered throughout the year with each topic having various sets of aims and goals. Some are heavier on language, some on Maths and others in science. Whatever is taught in the classrooms is as per the ICLCA curriculum, which is strictly followed by all staff. Topics change every 4 – 5 weeks and the teachers will inform parents via email about with a Topic Letter and Topic Plan.

Q8. When do the children begin to read and write?

In Nursery, children are introduced to letter sounds through songs and stories. In PS1, children learn the 26 initial letter sounds and will learn to join the sounds to form simple words. They will also learn to write names and sounds. For PS2, reading books will be sent home once children have learnt to blend and join words and have learnt basic sight words like ‘the’ or  ‘said’.

Q9. Do they get homework?

Yes, sometimes they get homework – and it’s all fun – maybe creating a family tree or working on a project with their parents at home. But this is not constant and tends to vary throughout the year, as well as from level to level. If children do not wish to do their homework, it is important that they are not forced to do so. PS2 children take home reading books for additional practice at home with their parents.

Q10. Are the children assessed in any way? How?

Formal assessments are done in October and March before each Parent/Teacher Conference and at the beginning of June for the End of Year Report. Throughout the year the teachers continually assess the children so that they are aware of where extra support is needed. These are also sent home to parents.

Q11. When should our child leave TCG?

In order for the child to benefit from our language programme, a minimum of two to three years with the school is required. This is applicable for Nursery level and above.