Infant Key Stage 1 Academic Programme

Our new school covers two stages of the British curriculum the Infant Key Stage 1. Three themes form the foundations of all our children’s learning. Children make the optimum progress when they are happy, feeling safe and confident. We aim to give our children a really good start to their school life.

School Building

The BIS Infant Primary campus, in 8 Vlastimira Zupana str. is exceptionally suitable for the students, given its closed off environment with a large outdoor space. The size of the playground allows for many outdoor activities such as football, basketball, climbing frame, swings, seesaws and two pergolas for rest and/or group activities. Students can enjoy on-site swimming lessons with a professional swimming instructor.

Foundation and Reception Curriculum

The students have lots of fun in the Foundation Stage and at the same time receive a good balance of learning and development. They are taught how to become more independent. Children then move into Year 1 motivated to learn and feeling confident.
The curriculum, based on the British National Curriculum, is delivered mainly through themes in the earlier years. Learning within the Infant Key Stage 1 department is explorative, playful and hands on. During the day the students experience a range of learning approaches: teacher led learning, play based learning activities and free play.

They also make most progress in Maths and Literacy when they have established a good level of attainment in their communication skills. Physical development is an essential part of brain development and preparing the foundations for children’s writing skills.

Throughout our Foundation Stage our pupils are introduced to phonics and reading. Students begin their school life by learning speed sounds and the skill of blending sounds to be able to read words. This scheme continues into years 1 and 2 and caters for all our students at a level appropriate for their learning needs.

In the Foundation and Reception classes – ages 3-5, learning experiences are based on structured play, with language development being an essential component of all activities.

Literacy in the Foundation and Reception involves activities such as:

Listening to stories
Retelling stories
Creating and sharing their own stories
Role play, imaginative play
Songs, chants, nursery rhymes
Alphabet recognition
Early phonics activities based on letter sound awareness and recognition
Enjoying looking at books – being ‘readers’- picture books, big books, electronic books
Pre and early writing activities – tracing over a model, making letters with playdough, air writing

A positive attitude toward Mathematics and a strong foundation for Mathematics learning begin in early childhood. These good beginnings reflect all the characteristics of good early childhood.

Teachers plan and provide a range of ‘play based learning’ activities which involve providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and to describe shapes, spaces, and measures.

Year 1 and 2 Curriculum

Our Key Stage 1 department consists of Years 1 -2 and is a carefully planned learning environment, which best supports student’s development. Its foundation is the English National Curriculum, adapted to meet the needs of a multi-lingual and multi-cultural cohort of fantastic students.

The Creative Curriculum at British International School is designed so that children will enjoy and engage in a variety of exciting learning opportunities. Our dedicated staff strive to provide real experiences for our students and equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful in their future. Our skilled teaching staff and support staff are able to adapt the curriculum to meet the specific needs of pupils within their class.
We have a strong academic focus on Reading, Writing and Mathematics from Reception onwards, ensuring that our children have a solid foundation on which to build.

As well as covering traditional subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Computing, and Art and Design which are taught by their class teacher, students will also have PE and Music taught by specialist teachers.
Our children are taught as individuals, in small groups and in whole classes. We monitor and assess every stage of learning and additional support or a higher level of challenge is offered when appropriate.

ECA

In addition to the curriculum subjects’ students at the Infant Key Stage 1 also develop socially through the likes of our extra-curricular activities twice a week (which may range from cooking to pottery to capoeira and many other options).
The school week culminates with an infant assembly on a Friday afternoon, where students will show off things they have done that week to the whole school.
This may be some art work, or reading some English work, or performing with their peers. Our foundation class often join us after their afternoon nap time. The assembly is followed by ‘Golden Time’ where students can select a non-curriculum activity to end the week.

Play Equipment

Play equipment and materials are arranged so that children can make choices and do not have to continually depend on adults. When planning activities, we recognise that young children learn best through natural day-to-day interaction with the planned and natural environment and the people around them. We provide children with the support of trusted adults, who actively engage with them and are interested in their learning.