The Primary School Curriculum

Whilst adhering to stipulated curriculum objectives, our skilled teachers have the freedom to design and deliver sequences of lessons which capture children’s interest and engagement. Opportunities to consolidate, reinforce and apply skills in a cross-curricular context is a key feature of our curriculum design. For each half-term, teachers produce ‘curriculum maps’ which identify the subjects covered, objectives to be taught and outcomes to be achieved. These are published on our website and are shared with parents via Seesaw.

Our inclusive approach

Over the course of an academic year, students will access a range of subjects within their class topic context, at a level appropriate to their stage of educational and cognitive development. This could be through support to access the objective at a basic level or additional depth of challenge to master it. The diagram and table on the next page illustrate how teachers design learning opportunities which meet the needs of a range of students within the same objective, an integral component of our inclusive approach.

Within our curriculum coverage, opportunities are utilised to make the most of the Cyprus locality and international community. Children develop skills, values, attitudes and attributes which are transferable across all aspects of the curriculum and beyond school life.

 

English

As an international school, we have a high proportion of students who are learning English as an additional language and who are at varying stages of their learning journey. Aside from Greek language lessons, all teaching and learning is carried out in English and through such immersion, students tend to use and develop their use of English with proficiency. The use of children’s native language is discouraged in school time as over-reliance can lead to missed opportunities to practice and develop English. Students who join us with little or no English are withdrawn from Greek lessons for their first year in order to learn basic English. We offer this for the first year only, due to Ministry of Education requirements.

Irrespective of a student’s level of fluency in English, we aim to develop their abilities within an integrated program of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students will be given the opportunities to interrelate the requirements of the English curriculum across all subjects. The teaching of grammar and sentence construction is taught within interesting, meaningful contexts to enable students to utilize the forms in their own writing. Objectives are regularly revisited across different writing opportunities with the aim of developing and eventually mastering the required grammatical constructions demanded by the writing genre.

Spelling is taught discreetly in accordance with the spelling rules stipulated in the National Curriculum framework for each year group or phase. In addition to investigating spelling patterns and rules, students are taught how to use and apply the associated vocabulary effectively in their writing.

Maths

All year groups in the primary school follow the White Rose Mathematics Program, which not only meets the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum but has an approach which reflects the best international practice in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Our consistent approach throughout the primary school facilitates a deeper learning of mathematics as topics are taught in greater depth to ensure concepts are understood and mastered. We also have regular arithmetic lessons to ensure key skills are being practised and refined.

When a new area of mathematics is introduced to the children, teachers plan for students to practise and develop fluency at an appropriate level of challenge, often with the use of practical resources. Learning opportunities are then designed for students to use and apply their skills in a range of ways. Students are expected to explain their reasoning within problem solving and time is dedicated to teaching and embedding this life-long skill. We achieve this through our CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach so that within each area of maths, children have a deeper understanding of patterns and relationships that underpin the mathematics used at a more abstract level. Areas of maths are also revisited in each year of the primary school so that students can build upon their foundations to extend and develop their knowledge and skills.

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