Grade R
The year before Grade 1 · Mokopane
Grade R is the bridge between playing and school, and it deserves its own space. Our Ruiter Street centre is dedicated to this one year, so the room, the routine and the teaching are all built around children at exactly this stage.
We follow the CAPS Grade R curriculum. By the end of the year your child will know their letters and sounds, count and compare with confidence, sit and listen for a full lesson, and walk into Grade 1 already knowing what school asks of them.
Ready For Grade 1
CAPS sets out what a Grade R child should be able to do by year end. Here is how we get there.
Letters & Sounds
Phonics taught in sequence: hearing a sound, finding it in a word, writing the letter. This is the single biggest predictor of how easily a child will learn to read.
Numbers To 20
Counting forwards and back, recognising written numerals, comparing quantities, and the first steps of adding and taking away.
Patterns & Shapes
Copying, extending and inventing patterns. Naming and sorting shapes. Early geometry builds the reasoning Grade 1 maths will lean on.
Life Skills
Personal wellbeing, health and safety, our community, and the natural world around Mokopane.
Fine Motor Work
Threading, cutting, pegging and drawing. A child needs hand control before pencil control, and we build it deliberately.
Learning To Be A Pupil
Putting a hand up, waiting a turn, finishing a task, packing away. The habits that make Grade 1 go smoothly.
Short Lessons, Real Structure
Five-year-olds concentrate in bursts. The day is built from short, focused sessions with movement in between, which is how we get real work done without anyone losing interest.
Bags away, greeting, a quiet activity at the table.
Prayer, the calendar, the weather, and sharing news.
The sound of the week, letter formation, shared reading.
Snack and free movement.
Counting, number games, and hands-on maths materials.
Art, music, or a theme lesson, then home or aftercare.
One Year, One Focus
Most schools tuck Grade R into a corner of the preschool or the back of the primary school. We gave it a building of its own, and it makes a difference you can see.
- Room built for the age — furniture, materials and displays all pitched at five-year-olds.
- No competing timetable — the day is not shaped around older or younger children.
- Teachers who specialise — staff who do this one year, every year.
- Meals and aftercare — the same support our preschool families already rely on.
- A known next step — children move up to our Rabe Street primary school already familiar with how we work.
A Look Around
Starting Grade R Next Year?
Places fill early. Send an enquiry and we will walk you through it.
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