Preparatory Stage
The Preparatory Stage is for three years and includes Grades 3,4, and 5.
“The Preparatory Stage will comprise three years of education, building on the play-,
discovery-, and activity-based pedagogical and curricular style of the Foundational Stage,
but also gradually beginning to incorporate textbooks as well as aspects of more formal
classroom learning. There would mostly be generalist teachers during this stage, with the
possible exception of some specialist language and art teachers (who may be shared across
the school or school complex). The aim of this stage will be to lay the general groundwork
across subjects, including reading, writing, speaking, physical education, art, languages,
science, and mathematics, so that students are prepared to delve deeper into learning areas
through specialised subjects and subject teachers in the stages that follow.”
The Preparatory Stage curriculum of the NCF is divided into the following curricular areas –
languages, mathematics, arts, physical education, and the world around us. The world
around us is an interdisciplinary area that encourages exploration and understanding of both
the natural world and the social world. Aspects of work in vocational education are also
incorporated into this curricular area.
The Preparatory Stage consolidates the capacities and dispositions that begin to develop in
the Foundational Stage. Students are expected to develop fluency in literacy and numeracy
and de- velop further capacities that are helpful in a systematic exploration of the natural and
social worlds around them.
