GUIDANCE
As Bilfen Preschools Guidance Department, we adopt “Preventive and Developmental Guidance”. We rely on in-class observations rather than diagnostic data to determine the developmental stage of our students. Our aim is to support students’ all developmental areas (physical, social, emotional, cognitive) equally.
Preschool years constitute a period during which children develop most rapidly. In our endeavors to contribute to each unique student’s development, our priority is to strengthen communication with parents. As Bilfen Preschools Guidance Department, we base our system on these targets. The main aspects of our system are as follows.
- At Bilfen Preschools, we aim to get to know the students better, through an online student information system that parents are expected to fill out before their child starts school
- Parents are informed about all the observations and activities that are evaluated according to the student’s age group through individual parent-teacher conferences, which are held every term. General parent-teacher conferences are organized three times a year.
- The whole process progresses based on school-family collaboration throughout the year.The system that ensures the evaluation of daily flow throughout the year ensures uninterrupted information-sharing between home and school. Thus, parents can get information about how their child spent the day and can easily communicate to the school any information that they would like to share.
- To closely monitor students’ development, a chart is filled out with due consideration of students’ developmental stages and is shared electronically with parents every three months.
At Bilfen Preschools the year begins with an orientation program. We would like to share with you a bit of information regarding the school adaptation process of our students who are just making a new start.
As the child develops “a concept of school”, s/he creates a schema based on her/his experiences and embarks upon his education journey with that very schema. Students’ emotions as well as the intensity and the duration of their emotions vary from each other. It should be noted that every student goes through an adaptation process that is unique to herself/himself. During this process, the child should be approached in a patient, understanding, and supportive manner. Research shows that a child’s refusing to go to school is not caused by a dislike of the destination, but it is rather a consequence of the inevitable emotions that the process of going to school evokes.
- Knowing how sensitive and important school adaptation process is, we present a booklet to the parents with guiding information on the matter. Furthermore, in order to facilitate students’ adaptation before they start school, we provide a series of stories created by Bilfen Preschools that aim to contribute positively to students’ perception of school.
- As another means of ensuring that students spend the whole year in an environment that feels safe, loving and pleasant, visuals are used in order to reinforce students’ positive behavior in the classroom and to enable them to develop the targeted behaviors. And thus, development continues throughout the year.
- In Bilfen Preschools, the Guidance Department – where necessary - plans small-group social skill programs to provide space for the students to acquire the skills that they need in social life. Some examples of such needed skill areas include recognizing and controlling one’s emotions, expressing one’s self, problem-solving, showing empathy. Through social skills group programs, which include some basic Mindfulness skills such as using the five senses to develop awareness of themselves and of the environment, correct breathing techniques, being able to accept their emotions and thoughts as a “moment”, students make headway toward adapting better to their environment and feeling more satisfied in social settings.
Bilfen Preschools Guidance Department bases its work on shared understanding and common goals that prevail throughout the institution, places the child in the center of all their planning, evaluates every child objectively, and conducts its work by by adding up-to-date information and skills on top of professionalism.
