Elementary Curriculum
Welcome to Elementary School
For Nursery through Grade 5 students, our International Curriculum builds on the foundation laid by the Preschool syllabus. Teaching and learning at Springdale International School Elementary celebrates the many ways children and staff work together to construct meaning and make sense of the world.
At Springdale International School Elementary, students are empowered to take charge of their own education and learning. Students are encouraged to play, explore, wonder, inquire, experiment, practice, invent, create, collaborate, and imagine. They are engaged hands-on with the world around them in their journey as lifelong learners. They spend most of their school day with a homeroom teacher and teaching assistant.
Friendships play a large role in social learning at Elementary School. Learning to
communicate, play creatively, and interact and care for others is crucial to students’ social development and participation in the Elementary Programme. We make it a priority in our classroom for kids to fosters such abilities. Both students and teachers reflect on the teaching and learning, and positive action is taken. Assessment is ongoing, shared with parents, and used by our teachers to improve and grow the curriculum.
Elementary School Curriculum
We know that children learn best when they want to learn, are interested in what is being taught, and is motivated to master that learning. At Springdale International School, we are the first in Bangladesh to use the Fieldwork Education International Primary Curriculum because it offers comprehensive, rigorous programme with a proven high degree of child engagement, which is at the heart of any good learning. With the Fieldwork Education Curriculum, students develop a thirst and excitement for learning which transforms them to a mindset of life-long
learners.
The Fieldwork Education curriculum is internationally minded. It centres around students’ personal goals, meeting the unique needs of each individual child. It also orients students towards global mindedness, encouraging enquiring minds and developing a profound respect for their community and the world around them.
Fieldwork Education International Primary Curriculum
Springdale International School offers the Fieldwork Education International Primary Curriculum for children aged 5-11 years old. It is a comprehensive, thematic, creative curriculum, with a clear process of learning and specific learning goals for every subject. It also develops international mindedness and encourages personal learning.
Learning Goals
The learning goals are the foundation on which the International Primary Curriculum is built. The IPC provides children with subject goals, personal learning goals, and uniquely, international learning goals, and these are defined for each age phase:
Age 5 -7
Milepost 1
Age 7-9
Milepost 2
Age 9 -11
Milepost 3
Subject Goals
Subject goals cover the knowledge, skills and understanding of children relating to the subjects they are learning. There are subject learning goals for Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, ICT & Computing, Technology, History, Geography, Music, Physical Education, Art and Society.
Personal Goals
Personal goals underpin the individual qualities and dispositions we believe children will find essential in the 21st century. There are 8 IPC Personal Goals – enquiry, resilience, morality, communication, thoughtfulness, cooperation, respect and adaptability. Opportunities to experience and practice these are built into the learning tasks within each unit of work.
International Learning Goals
International learning goals are unique to our curriculum and help young children begin the move towards an increasingly sophisticated national, international and intercultural perspective. Each thematic IPC unit includes an international aspect, to help develop a sense of ‘international mindedness’.
Units of Learning
We know that children learn best when they want to learn. That’s why all of the IPC’s thematic units of learning are designed to appeal to children’s interests and help them to learn more about the world around them.
Assessment
We believe that differentiating between knowledge, skills and understanding is crucial to the development of children’s learning.
Skills cannot be assessed by tests and they can’t reliably be assessed in one single assessment. At SDIS, teachers use a rubrics criteria to identify the learning stage of each skill in each subject at each age phase. Teachers will assess whether a child is:
- Beginning
- Developing
- Mastering
There’s also a focus on self-assessment and peer assessment. Children are often asked to assess their knowledge using the following statements:
- ‘I’m getting used to it’
- ‘I’m getting better’
- ‘I’m really getting it!’