In my opinion, effective, purposeful, thoughtful and embedded routines significantly contribute to the attainment of success in one’s adult life. They help to create calm in the chaos, organisation in our fast-paced life, healthy habits, predictability, safety and structure, and aid in the achievement of long-term goals. Routines free up our minds for the challenging work. This is the same in the classroom.

Learning and actively following routines form an enormous part of the first few weeks of term. Every part of our ELC routines has been carefully thought through and refined over time. Given their importance, these routines are explicitly taught, which takes time, great care and an abundance of patience… so much patience.

Not only do routines (such as arrivals, toileting, lining up, moving to and from specialist lessons, group times, rest times and mealtimes) give children a sense of security and safety due to their predictability and structure, but they have enormous potential for learning. Every single one of our daily routines helps to build the girls’ self-confidence, sense of belonging, self-regulation and self-help skills. The girls have opportunities to help each other, and they learn how to listen, speak and behave in a group in a variety of settings. The girls learn to do so much for themselves simply because they know exactly what is expected and it is repeated each day. When this is implemented effectively, the girls are then free to learn so much more!

Overall, our routines contribute to the development of the girls’ identity as Mamie girls, Annie girls and as Wildy girls. These moments cannot be photographed for you because they are routine – almost invisible once embedded – and because they require our team to be present and one hundred percent engaged.

In writing this article, I aim to help you see the importance of routines in our educational program. It is to shine a light on an often overlooked or unnoticed part of our day and your day, yet something that is vital to success (in whatever way you define it). It is also to help you to understand that what you see on Seesaw is an incredibly small part of your daughter’s education.

Lastly, and as equally as important, I must take the opportunity to thank our ELC educators. The calm, organised, positive learning environment they create does not happen by chance; it is developed intentionally over time and repeated with patience every day.