ACADEMIC OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW IN
THE PREP SCHOOL
The Prep School operates on a two-week cycle
of lessons, with each week being designated
as Week A or Week B. Every day, the pupils
will have five lessons, each of which is an hour
long, followed by a further two hours where
they will participate in the Co-Curricular
Activity programme (shortened to one hour
on a Friday). The CCAs cover academic (prep,
pastoral, enrichment and support) alongside
physical and creative activities.
The Prep School’s foundation is the English
National Curriculum, suitably enhanced and
taking into consideration our international
context and the needs of our pupils.
In addition to the English National Curriculum,
the learning in years 3-5 is supplemented by the
International Primary Curriculum. This overlaps
with years 1 and 2 in the Pre-Prep, which enables
us to give cohesion and continuity to the younger
pupils before they commence year 6 and the
more rigorous academic challenges. Further
details of the IPC can be found on page 14.
The Lower Prep (years 3 to 5) is class-based,
with the class teacher being with the children for
much of the working day, though several lessons
are taken by subject specialists including Chinese,
art, drama, music, PE and swimming. Once
the children move to year 6 and above they, in
effect, begin ‘secondary education’, as all lessons
are then taught by different subject specialists.
For pupils in Upper Prep, they move fully into
the house system where they are supported by
their housemaster and team of house tutors.
Further details of the house system can be
found in a later section of this booklet.
English, mathematics and Chinese are the
subjects central to our curriculum in the
Prep School, an overview of each subject is set
out below.
ENGLISH
We aim to expose the children to a wide
range of contexts and learning experiences
giving learners a secure foundation of English.
This will pave the way for independent and
lifelong learning and effective communication
of knowledge, ideas, values, attitudes and
experience. We promote a balanced use of
approaches appropriate to the needs of second
or foreign language learners to facilitate effective
learning.
The Prep School follows the English National
Curriculum structure for Key Stages 2 and
3, and teachers inspire the pupils by creating
a language-rich environment and innovative
lesson plans through planning a cross-
curricular approach to learning, and making
use of community resources to enable learner
participation in life-wide learning activities.
The needs and requirements of every child
are considered and work is differentiated
accordingly. We believe ICT is an integral part of
the curriculum and enables children to research,
create and present their work in a wide range
of formats.
Children are encouraged to become
independent thinkers and to express themselves
thoughtfully and articulately both orally and
through creative writing in a ‘Big Write’. The
aim of a ‘Big Write’ is to raise attainment levels
in speaking, listening and writing. A ‘Big Write
also emphasises the ‘talk for writing’ concept.
Therefore, pupils are taught to speak standard
English in order to help them make fewer
spelling and grammar mistakes in their inspired
written work.
Our objective is to provide children with
the tools necessary to become confident,
independent and successful readers, speakers
and writers through studying engaging and
appropriate texts, analysing language, discussion,
debates, research, role-play, drama and
assessment.
Teachers continuously assess the children’s
learning to gain insights into their strengths
and weaknesses, to aid planning and to provide
feedback and to enable further progress in
their learning. Children are also involved in the
assessment process by peer reviewing work,
offering constructive criticism. This form of
assessment improves pupils' understanding as
well as improving their metacognitive skills.
All children are encouraged to choose a wide
range of fiction and non-fiction books from the
school library to broaden and develop their own
reading. Each year group is allocated an hourly
session per week in the library where they
also participate in structured, guided, reading
sessions. The librarian provides classroom
teachers with relevant books to enhance the
topic and cross-curricular links.
MATHEMATICS CHINESE PREP SCHOOL PLANNERS
Mathematics in the Prep School is taught with
the needs of our international community in
mind. Children need to be prepared for their
eventual transition either to our own Senior
School (where the IGCSE and IB are taught)
or to other schools with different courses. As
such, we endeavour to stretch children as far as
possible with a wide-ranging and comprehensive
syllabus that supports ongoing mathematical
development. All pupils in the Prep School study Chinese
intensively, with children in years 2 to 6 receiving
nine hours of instruction per fortnight. Pupils
in years 7 to 9 all receive a minimum of seven
hours per cycle with the option for native
speakers to increase this to eleven hours
per cycle. Pupils are set, based on their prior
learning and experience of the language, and
each year group is taught in a minimum of three
streams. Prep is set twice-weekly, to the tune
of 20-30 minutes per piece. Writing practice
makes up the bulk of prep tasks, although
sometimes children will be asked to complete a
reading assignment, watch or listen to a dialogue,
memorise vocabulary or produce work for
display purposes. All teachers, children and parents are expected
to use the planners frequently. They are an
important and useful communication tool
between home and school, so please check your
child’s on a daily basis.
In Lower Prep we use a Singapore based
programme called ‘Maths No Problem’. In
Upper Prep, pupils progress to the challenging
Mathematics Enhancement Programme (MEP), a
syllabus developed by the Centre for Innovation
in Mathematics Teaching at the University of
Plymouth. This syllabus is more rigorous than
the English National Curriculum, and is based
on a ‘spiral’ of learning (in which material is
revisited and expanded upon) rather than a
linear progression from one topic to another.
Problem-solving, logic and the use of correct
mathematical terminology are key features
of the programme, which is based on the
methodologies used in other mathematically
high-performing countries.
From year 5 onwards, mathematics is taught
in streamed sets. For those who struggle
with some of the work, we provide additional
support through the CCAs, and the most
able children are stretched through an
exciting enrichment provision which combines
mathematics with computer programming. This
includes coaching for international mathematics
competitions and olympiads.
Organisation and good routines are strongly
promoted, and we set high expectations of
children for presentation and accuracy of work,
and for motivation and effort. To reinforce
learning, ‘prep’ is set twice weekly for all years,
and to support independent learning we
subscribe to carefully-chosen online resources
that allow children to practice and refine key
skills at home. Assessment is a continuous
process, but we hold five formal written
examinations every year.
We ask parents to sign or initial at least once a
week to show that they have seen any messages.
In year 5 and above, children will also record
details of their prep and its due date.
Chinese language and culture are essential
elements of studies at the College, and we
endeavour to promote both through exciting
enrichment activities and special events. The
Chinese department offer a range of CCAS
which include calligraphy, Chinese folk dance,
Chinese singing, Chinese painting, paper folding/
origami, Chinese reading, Chinese debating, fun
Mandarin, Chinese storytelling, Kung Fu and
more.
For those pupils in years 7, 8 and 9 who are of
native or near-native Chinese language ability, as
an alternative to studying French of Spanish, they
may opt to take an additional course, Chinese
Cultural Studies. Through the exploration of the
multiple aspects of Chinese culture (e.g. history,
geography, literature, art, technology, and
philosophy) and the use of various professional
selected multimedia and literary materials, the
course aims to further develop pupils’ skills of
appreciation and expression.
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