The Early Years department provides a stimulating and high quality education, in a safe and caring environment, for children aged between 3 and 5 years. We aim to give children the very best possible start to their education and provide a firm foundation on which their future education can be built.
The Early Years curriculum is based on the UK Early Years Foundation Stage framework, and is delivered through a mixture of learning topics and student-led learning experiences. Structured, well-planned play is an important feature of the Early Years curriculum and play-based learning is essential to our vision of developing learners with a positive and creative mindset that enables them to achieve success at school and in later life; achieved through a happy atmosphere and safe and stimulating physical environment that is conducive to academic learning as well as personal and social growth. The main areas are communication and language; physical development and personal, social & emotional development, but the children also start learning essential phonics and maths knowledge and skills.
The curriculum encourages the individual development of each child through a mixture of whole class, group and individual teaching and is lively, exciting and challenging!
The Early Years department is housed in its own building with a secure outdoor learning environment that is accessed by all the classrooms directly. The outdoor learning environment includes a large sandpit (a great favourite of our younger learners!), a cushioned tiled area for developing gross motor skills and an artificially grassed area that houses learning centres such as construction, a reading corner, water play, phonics and number skills. The area is covered by purpose built shades, allowing access all year round.
The Lower Phase encompasses Year 1, 2 and 3 children. We believe learning is achieved through a happy atmosphere and safe and stimulating physical environment that is conducive to academic learning as well as personal and social growth. As such we take great pride in ensuring that our classrooms reflect the learning process and inspire intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and enthusiasm for learning.
Purposeful learning (through projects and inquiries) is central to our pupil’s development and our vision that we need to prepare our pupils for a rapidly changing world where skills, values, attitudes and attributes are as important as knowledge. In inquiring into the world around them pupils are able to gain a deeper understanding of new concepts and to explore those concepts in real life situations.
The outcomes of the UK National Curriculum for England are therefore taught through a combination of discrete skill based lessons and application through our inquiry approach to learning. The firm foundations provided by our Early Years department are built upon in the Lower Phase, with the continuance of the NCBIS Phonics programme. This provides the foundations for early reading and supports our writing programme.
Pupils in the Lower Phase are also supported by our team of specialist subject teachers; with specialist lessons provided in music, physical education and modern foreign languages. In addition to their academic studies, children are also encouraged to participate in our after school Extra Curricular Activities (ECAs) programme, where a range of sporting, artistic and musical activities are offered to enrich the children’s learning experiences and to develop each pupil’s unique talents to help them achieve their potential.
Years 3-6 continue to build upon and develop the skills, values, attitudes, attributes, knowledge and conceptual understanding that our students have gained in Years 1 and 2.
Every class is led in their learning by a teacher and a teaching assistant, and it is through a wide range of challenges and experiences that our pupils develop lively, questioning and informed minds. Our units of inquiry continue to deepen pupil’s understanding of the world around them and this is again underpinned by the UK National Curriculum outcomes. Local educational visits and residential events in-country and overseas add breadth and interest to our programme of study, bringing to life the pupils’ learning and developing both their academic learning as well as their personal and social growth.
Choice and challenge, both within the curriculum and the extra-curricular programmes, is offered through our specialist lessons in music, physical education and modern foreign languages and involvement in school productions, sports competitions, musical events and our after school activity programme.
High academic and social standards are our expectation and as our pupils transition to Secondary School at the end of Year 6, we are confident that they leave us as caring international pupils committed to the traditional values of honesty, courtesy, respect, integrity and fair play.
