Treetops | A Montessori and International Baccalaureate School

Welcome to Sugar Gums Playgroup

Our Playgroup is set up as a Montessori-prepared environment, with a structured session and planned activities facilitated by our trained Montessori playgroup leader. Playgroup generally runs to the following schedule:

• 9:30am – Playgroup session commences

• 9:45am – Welcome songs

• 10:30am – Morning tea

• 11:15am – Story and goodbye songs

• 11:30am – Playgroup session ends

We are excited to announce that from Term 3 2023, our Sugar Gums Montessori Playgroup will be moving! Our playgroup sessions will now take place in the Darlington Family Playgroup building (located on Lionel Road, Darlington).

Treetops’ Sugar Gums Playgroup provides a Montessori playgroup environment, suited to the younger child. From the moment of birth, the individual is bombarded by a myriad of sense perceptions. Maria Montessori described this period of human development as the stage of the Unconscious Absorbent Mind. Through their senses, children discover their immediate world.

In a Montessori Playgroup, children are free to manipulate the environment and experience age-appropriate activities under the guidance of a trained Playgroup Leader. Our Playgroup Leader has extensive experience in Montessori and Early Years environments. They plan and organise the playgroup activities, and provide guidance to parents and caregivers to assist them to work effectively with their child to aid their ongoing development.

As a Montessori Playgroup, our focus is on respect for the child and fostering the child’s independence while respecting the needs of others and caring for the environment. Each child attending requires the close supervision of an adult at all times. Providing a positive example with our own behaviour will ensure children develop manners, care for their environment, and respect for the wellbeing of others.

Children are eligible to attend our Sugar Gums Playgroup from the age of 18 months to approximately three years. At three to three and a half years of age, children are usually developmentally ready to enter into our Children’s House programme. Places in every Playgroup session are limited to ensure a Montessori-prepared environment. Where there are no places immediately available, applications will be added to our waiting list.

To apply, please complete and return the Playgroup application form to the Treetops school office, together with the application fee. You can find the application form on our website. For any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact the Treetops school office.

Building resilience in children seems to be a theme that has come up a great deal in recent times. Whether it be to cope with the stress of our increasingly busy lifestyles, dealing with ever-changing external factors totally out of our control or learning to navigate and cope with childhood bumps and scraps in the playground, learning to work through these trials and disappointments in a positive and accepting manner, is all part of building resilience in children.

And just how can we help build resilience in children?

Interestingly, Australian parenting author and educator Maggie Dent believes that allowing children unstructured play opportunities not only helps to “develop curiosity” but also develops their ability to take a few risks – thus giving them the opportunity to become resilient human beings.

We know that the research consistently proves that unstructured play helps children learn in so many ways – it promotes risk-taking, allows the children to be imaginative and creative, and guides them in the process of making choices and autonomy. “Play is how we learn to wait, to take turns, to develop the art of strategy, to lose and to win graciously,” she states. “When it’s set outside in the natural world, it’s also fantastic exercise, good for children’s spirits and can reduce stress.” When children play, they are also able to learn from their mistakes and to bounce back from life’s inevitable challenges and ups and downs.

So, as parents and educators, what can we do for our children to ensure we are giving them every opportunity to develop these necessary skills for life?

The answer is quite simple – we let them play.

Play is a big part of our school day at Silver Tree – and this philosophy begins right in the formative years in our kindergarten programmes. Here you will see the children digging tunnels in the sandpits, negotiating how to climb the forts, balancing chairs on tables creatively to create the perfect two storey castle.

When you walk through our kindergartens you observe just how engrossed the children are in their world of imaginative play.

And in the primary school too, every day we see the children immersed in a range of unstructured play. A stroll through our Bush Playground – “The Village” as we affectionately call it – and you will see on any given day, Silver Tree children climbing trees effortlessly, carefully negotiating the strength of branches, testing their weight and courage with each step.

We see them building incredibly intricate cubby houses. We are able to witness their excited problem-solving discussions over the cubby’s architecture, the correct materials to use, the distribution of labour fairly. All of course, wonderful learning opportunities for the children.

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