Curriculum

^*The start date for each level is on the second week of August until the 3^rd week of June.

International Primary Curriculum (IPC)

The International Primary Curriculum is a comprehensive curriculum with a clear process of learning and with specific learning goals for every subject, for personal learning and for international mindedness. It is now the curriculum choice of international and national schools in over 1,800 schools and 90 countries around the world.

Why IPC?

• The IPC is flexible and can be adapted to children’s interests and level of understanding
• It can be integrated with other curriculum to ensure you’re meeting statutory requirements, in a creative and engaging way
• It offers simple but structured curriculum focussed around subject, personal and international learning goals
• With the IPC you’re part of an international community of schools, teachers and learners with access to an online space for information sharing
• IPC helps engage parents with learning, and to understand the relevance of learning in the classroom and at home
• Assessment is done by teachers and children to help engage them with learning, and understand their level of skills and knowledge
• The IPC encourages collaboration and reflection not just between teachers and pupils, but amongst teachers within the school and worldwide

English Curriculum

We believe in laying a strong foundation in English for our young learners by cultivating a keen interest in reading through an early exposure to a wide variety of children’s literature.

We adopt the Shared Reading approach where teachers explicitly model reading skills and strategies such as oral fluency and expressions, while providing children with an enjoyable and interactive reading experience. The use of the shared reading strategy allows children to develop fluency, build sight words and increase word knowledge (Holdaway, 2009). Acquisition of content-related vocabulary and knowledge is essential for students’ academic success. “When new vocabulary knowledge develops, students will be able to create a deeper understanding of the text and the content it represents” (Miller and Veatch, 2011). Emphasis is placed on phonemic awareness, phonics and early literacy skills to lay the foundation for acquiring reading fluency, comprehension and reading skills and strategies at the lower primary levels.

Our Lower Primary English Programme is further integrated with the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). The IPC is a comprehensive, thematic, creative curriculum, with a clear process of learning and specific learning goals for every subject (Introducing the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). (n.d.).). We provide a language and literacy-rich environment for students to explore and use target language structures in the context of exciting and globally relevant themes curated from the IPC.

Mathematics Curriculum

We place emphasis on providing a quality and rigorous mathematics education that supports the acquisition of fundamental life skills such as analytical thinking, logical reasoning, making connections and problem-solving. We recognise that a strong foundation in mathematics and the mastery of basic mathematical concepts are critical for the advancement to many other fields of study and subsequent career successes.

We adopt the Concrete Pictorial Abstract (CPA) approach based on the concept of enactive, iconic and symbolic modes of representation developed by the American psychologist, Jerome Bruner (Bruner & Kenney, 1965). Teachers provide multiple opportunities for students to physically manipulate concrete resources and objects to explore a concept before moving on to pictorial representation using images and finally teaching the abstract understanding of numbers and symbols involved in solving a computation.

Apart from teaching mathematics content, we also focus on building up ‘thinking mathematics’ skills namely problem solving, communication, reasoning and connections developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (Fromboluti, C. (n.d.)). Teachers also demonstrate ‘thinking aloud’ to make thinking visible and develop students’ metacognition to become independent and self-directed learners.

Science Curriculum

We aim to develop an inquisitive mind and a sense of curiosity that will facilitate the acquisition of investigative skills. The expectation that learners will take action as a result of their learning is a particularly crucial part of the International Learning Goals given the volatility of the modern world and the uncertainties that humanity is likely to face in the coming years.

Central to the International Curriculum is the aim to improve learning for all learners in IPC schools. The IPC provides teachers with thematic units of learning, which outline key activities and tasks that ensure the delivery of the IPC in the classroom, guided by the underpinning research inherent in its design.

Geography Curriculum

We promote the use of a constructivist pedagogy in classrooms, whereby learners connect new knowledge to prior knowledge and are actively engaged in constructing their own understanding.

Central to the International Curriculum is the aim to improve learning for all learners in IPC schools. The IPC provides teachers with thematic units of learning, which outline key activities and tasks that ensure the delivery of the IPC in the classroom, guided by the underpinning research inherent in its design.

Arts Curriculum

We promote experiential and active learning. Experiential learning offers an approach to education and learning that is based in intellectual traditions and is a method for connecting education, work and personal development (Kolb, 2015).

The experiential and active approach to learning that the International Curriculum promotes ensures the acquisition and development of Knowledge, Skills and Understanding in ways in which the learner is fully engaged in learning activities considered to be active and also cyclical, repeating in order to deepen learning. As noted in research on brain-based learning, neurons are strengthened when learning relates to motivation, since contextually relevant engagement supports the development of neural connections (Spreng et al, 2014). Greer (2017) notes that engaging children in tasks that are authentic and meaningful can stimulate their interest and curiosity.