The Difference Between Nursery And Primary School

The Difference Between Nursery And Primary School

Most parents are confused that the nursery and the preschool are the same. Therefore, I thought to discuss the difference between nursery and primary school comprehensively.

Typically, children enter a nursery and then to a primary school for their learning. A child should be interested and motivated in learning as it is important when he starts nursery and primary school.

There are a lots of differences between nursery and primary school but both help for early childhood development, which will affect the child throughout his life.

After considering the importance of the topic, I decided to dedicate this article to provide you with more detail in this regard. 

So, What are the differences between Nursery and Primary School? There are many differences between nursery and primary school. Mainly nursery can be identified as less organized the starting point of the education and primary school is the more organized first step in the education. While the nursery is focused on play-based learning and gives more freedom, primary schools provide learning opportunities in a more structured manner. Both institutes have different milestones and learning outcomes and contribute to early childhood development in different ways. 

This article has covered the importance of early childhood education, the way nursery and primary school help for early childhood development, the difference between nursery and primary school, pre-school curriculum Vs primary school curriculum, and pre-school learning outcomes Vs. primary school learning outcomes.

This will be a comprehensive post that covers all the relevant information. Therefore, I have listed the topics I discuss below. Please, feel free to jump straight to the section you want by clicking on the topic.

Let’s get started!

Importance of early childhood education

Children are born ready to learn. They learn by observing, listening, exploring, experimenting, and asking questions from their background. This provides the foundation for lifelong progress.

Their brains develop through usage when they are growing up. To learn properly a child needs a stimulating environment that is filled with lots of different ways to learn. Additionally, he also needs plenty of chances to practice what he learns.

Before we get into the difference between nursery and primary school it is worth understanding the importance of early childhood education. Children are the adult citizens of tomorrow. Do you think that early childhood education is so important to a child? Yes, it is. Let’s find out why.

  • Boost creativity

Early childhood education gives children countless opportunities to boost creativity through been messy. Let’s be realistic; most parents and elders get angry to see messy paintings.

Children like to paint, create arts and crafts, and be messy. Another significant part of early childhood education programs is exposure to music. Children get to sing, play instruments, and associate with sound at an early age. Music is as significant as reading and writing.

Making music, clapping, dancing, and fun activities will facilitate to development of children’s fine motor skills. Singing songs will build their brain and body coordination well.

The talents that children learn whereas collaborating in music contributes to the child’s overall brain development.

  • Improve Self-Esteem and Confidence

Early childhood education helps to improve the self-esteem and confidence of children from the first step of their social exposure.  When children join childhood education programs, they experience lots of positive experiences.

They can build positive relationships with their teachers and classmates. This will build up children’s self-esteem and confidence from childhood.

  • Develop good habits

Daily routines help children to feel safe and comfortable. Also, it is the best way to educate children on healthy daily habits, like brushing their teeth twice a day or washing their hands.

Early childhood education helps children to take responsibility for their daily activities, including getting dressed and packing their bags, etc. That means the child develops good habits within himself.

How does nursery and primary school help for early childhood development? 

As the starting point of education, early childhood education or nursery education is creating a strong foundation for kids’ education. The next step on this education ladder is primary education and it makes the foundation stronger and adds more bricks.

When we pay attention to the difference between nursery and primary school, it is very important to get to know about how these 2 institutes help for early childhood development. 

1. Mental development

Nursery and primary schools are the prime places where children start their education. It gives a chance for them to acquire knowledge in many new fields of education. For example, they begin to learn about people, literature, history, mathematics, politics, and other various subjects.

This contributes to cultivation in the thinking procedure that helps mental development. Further, by using different teaching methods such as project-based learning, free plat times, group activities, etc nursery and primary schools can help children in their mental development.

Those activities improve their thinking skills and help them to build strong mental stability. 

2. Physical development

Physical development is one of the most important facts in early childhood development. Nursery and primary school help your child to become a healthy person. Children go through various physical development fastly.

When home restricts the child, in nursery or preschool, the child uses his energy up to the fullest with their friends. Activities such as sports, crafts help children guide their boundless energy into something productive. Also, it makes a healthy child. 

3. Improve socialization of the child

Children who get a proper childhood education improve their social skills through practical experiences. In a childhood setting, children learn essential skills like listening, sharing, and working with others.

Especially, the use of songs, games, stories, that are used in childhood education teaches children how to interact. Playing could be an important part of learning social skills. Circle time is additionally a very good structured time for listening and working together.

They learn to share and speak. It’s particularly effective on children who do not have siblings at home.

Is there a difference between nursery and primary school? 

Obviously, there is a difference between nursery and primary schools. As parents, you must definitely know the difference between these two institutes and it will help you to guide your child properly.

They differentiate through the following mentioned factors. Let us have a glance!

1. Definition

In the first point, the definition of nursery represents any type of institution that has been designed for children who are too young to go to a school.

And the primary school is an elementary school that includes the first three or four grades of a school.

2. Types

There are a few different types in preschool institutions based on the way of teaching such as: 

  1. Montessori – Initiated by Maria Montessori, this intends to develop a child’s senses.
  2. Waldorf – Teachings of Austrian writer Rudolf Steiner. 
  3. Reggio Emilia – Encourages exploration and concentrates on the importance of community and self-expression.
  4. Bank Street – Teaching focuses on hands-on activities.

Further, they are different types of primary schools. Public schools which are funded by the government, thus provide an option for children who cannot afford to go to a private school.  

Private schools are operated as profit educational institutions and the fee is higher than in public schools. Another type is semi-government schools. These schools are half funded by the government and the rest should be shouldered by the parents. 

3. Curriculum

Both nursery and primary schools have curriculums and are supposed to cover specific subjects. More or less the nursery schools have a very flexible curriculum where teachers have more freedom to be creative.

Primary teachers also have this option in primary school but they are obliged to make the kids ready for the secondary subjects. Both nursery and primary schools cover maths, phonics, sport and movement, art and craft, science, and music.

Other subjects such as history, religion, etc can be added based on the curriculum of the particular school or nursery. 

4. Advantages 

Nurseries are the foundation institutes for academic learning. It mainly assists the child to grasp phonics and reading skills. A child gets the opportunity to interact with other children.

It assists in developing the social skills of a child as it is the first time a child interacts with outsiders. Additionally, Nurseries prepare a child for primary education.

Primary schools provide a curriculum for well-rounded learning while teaching the language and numeracy skills to the child. It is more advanced than a nursery. Primary schools generate various opportunities such as accessing the library, etc.

And prepare children for secondary education. Ultimately, advantage or the basic learning outcome can be identified as one of the main differences between nursery and primary school.

Pre-school curriculum Vs. Primary school curriculum 

It may look the same but there is a difference between nursery and Primary school Curriculum.

Preschool education curriculum focuses heavily on play, exploration, and fostering a love of learning while primary schools pay attention to structured and generally take a more direct approach to learning and meeting educational milestones.

So, let’s identify what are the differences between Preschool and Primary school.

  • Environment

Preschools typically have little sizes in a nurturing atmosphere. Teachers are inspired to be inventive and playful in daily activities and have considerable input in developing the study curriculum and schedule. 

Further, nursery classrooms are full of toys, playing items, papers, and other fancy decorations. It creates a better place for kids to learn while playing. But primary school classrooms are far more organized and created basically for learning and giving less priority to playing. 

  • Educational Milestones

Every country establishes its educational milestones that students should meet before leaving preschool and advance to primary schools. Some schools introduce preschool standards. 

Kids don’t generally have to be compelled to meet standards to enter preschools. Generally, the sole demand is that a toddler is potty trained.

If your kid is in preschool, you’ll likely receive regular reports on your child’s progress and will even attend parent-teacher conferences. If your kid is in primary school, you may only hear regarding behavior and acquire periodic updates on achievements.

This depicts another difference between Pre-school and Primary school.

  • Student Behavior

Primary schools are expected to possess rather more impulse management than preschoolers.

Preschool teachers may specialize in burning off children’s energy through play, whereas primary school teachers expect that children are ready to specialize in lessons for brief periods.

Pre-school learning outcomes Vs. Primary school learning outcomes

Both pre-school and primary school learning impact differently to a child’s life. This can be also identified as a basic difference between nursery and primary school.

Here we will identify what are the pre-school learning outcomes vs. primary school learning outcomes separately. 

Pre-school learning outcomes are included;

  • Communication, Language, And Literacy

 Pre-schools help the children to read and write basic words and create their first steps towards learning to write by teaching them how to hold a piece of writing instrument, like a crayon or pencil.

Children will be concerned in listing to stories, singing songs, reading poems, and hearing and saying different word sounds. This may facilitate improving their literacy skills and modify them to feel confident once they speak and read.

So, children can obtain communication, language, and literacy skills through pre-school.

  • Mathematical and Logical Development

Stories, games, imaginative play associated songs are used to facilitate kids to develop an understanding of basic mathematical concepts and ideas.

They’ll be instructed on basic concepts like weight, knowing once things are heavier or lighter than different objects, etc. 

Also, it improves their awareness of numbers, counting, shapes, and space.

Let’s have a look at primary-school learning outcomes;

  • Broadening horizons

The school will introduce a child to many opportunities. From then a child is exposed to totally different nationalities, cultures, and traditions, help to form their views of the world around them.

Field visits and interactive activities let the kid experience new things, whereas every different subject in class provides a style of what might wait for her in the future. Many primary schools provide many extracurricular opportunities.

Children can join with the swimming team, register for cheerleading, volunteer to figure with other children, etc. All of those experiences help to develop a child’s interests, build self-esteem and shape the child’s academic and professional life.

  • Academic Potential

Ideally, the school’s role is to bring every student to their individual, fully academic potential.  Apart from the academic skills, problem-solving skill is an essential life skill.

It’s the ability to investigate a situation, propose an answer, and, ought to that resolution not work, be ready to re-strategize to do once more.

The problem-solving mentality encourages children to stay to be encouraged in any situation which leads them to have a good academic potential.

Conclusion – The Difference Between Nursery And Primary School

As we discussed above, there is a difference between nursery and Primary school. As preschool is designed for children under school age between two and five years. Primary school is for children between five and eleven years.

These institutions play a crucial role as they provide an earlier start to education for children. Preschools mainly focus on play-based techniques of learning that children show more interest. 

Also, it has many effective impacts on the child. Children also get the train in how to behave in a classroom environment through the pre-schools. The subjects in primary school generally include mathematics, social studies, physical education, health, etc that are more advanced than pre-school. In most countries, primary education is compulsory for children.

This stage of a child contributes effectively to the character development of a child. So we can see the difference between Preschool and Primary school, but it is worthy to mention that, both play a crucial role in the development of a child.

Thank you for reading! I hope you find this article valuable. Stay tuned with Edu Nursery for more valuable content.

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