British Primary Section ›
In England and Wales, Key Stage 1 covers Year 1 and 2 (ages 5 -7). This broad and balanced curriculum covers the four core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and Information and Communication Technology. The foundation subjects include History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology, Physical Education, Chinese Language and Culture (CLC) and Music. All these subjects are covered within the integrated curriculum units and specialist lessons. Personal, Social and Health Education is covered on a daily basis in the classroom and in a weekly assembly.
All children are taught by experienced teachers and supported by full-time classroom assistants. Specialist teachers work with the children is specific subject areas. Specialist teachers include Music, CLC, P.E., ICT, Learning Support and English as an Additional Language (EAL). The cross-cultural environment boasts children of 50 different nationalities, some of whom enter the school speaking minimal English. The excellent EAL team works alongside the teachers to provide non-English speakers with the tools to communicate socially and academically and improvements are rapid.
Key Stage 1 benefits from having strong, creative and dedicated class teachers who provide an exciting and stimulating learning environment and encourage high academic standards through a practical approach to teaching and learning. Lessons are tailored to cater for the children's needs, where everyone is given the opportunity to demonstrate their full potential. There is a supportive pastoral system catering for the needs of individual students.
The school has high academic standards and expectations, supported by rigorous reporting, assessment and target setting. Students' progress is continually and closely monitored as they move through the Key Stage. Teacher assessment plays a major role in measuring a child's progress and achievement.
Maths is taught as a discrete subject, although links to curriculum units are made where appropriate. Maths Learning Objectives follow the UK Primary Strategy.
The integrated curriculum is made up of a combination of "linked learning" units/topics.
The subjects covered through the delivery of the linked learning topics are English, Science, Geography, History, Art and Design & Technology. There are also elements of the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) curriculum taught through the topics.
Curriculum Topic Units are designed to be flexible to respond to the individual needs of children within each class. The guides to each unit state Key Objectives and planned activities. The flexibility of the units means that activities can be varied according to the prior learning and the interests of the children in each class. There is no standard time in which units of work are delivered. A unit can be as short as four weeks or as long as a term.
Children at TES come from a diverse range of backgrounds and nationalities. For most children, English is not their only language. Where English is a relatively weak language for the child, to the extent this is causing difficulty in the classroom, these children are identified as EAL learners for whom the EAL department will provide focused support.
Our aim is to enable all EAL learners to achieve a level of English proficiency such that they can succeed in the mainstream classroom.