Primary School (Year 1-6)

Primary School Stages & Goals

Our Primary School is made up of two Key Stages:

Key Stage One (KS1): Students in Years 1 and 2, ranging from 5 to 7 years old.

Key Stage Two (KS2): Students are in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, ranging from 7 to 11 years old.

Our Primary curriculum promotes four aspects of achievement:

• The ability to express oneself in oral and written form and, where appropriate, to remember facts accurately and use them constructively.
• The ability to apply knowledge through practical tasks, problem solving and investigation skills, and through the use of oral and written language.
• The development of personal and social skills, such as the ability to work with others and to  take on a leadership role within a group.
• The development of confidence through self-discipline and the commitment to learn and persevere even when tasks seem difficult.

Subjects & Major Areas of Learning

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Music
• History
• Geography
• Chinese
• Computing
• PE (Physical Education)
• Art
• PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education)
• EAL (English as an Additional Language)

Assessments & Tracking Progress

The principles that underpin our assessment system are:

• There is no limit to what every student can achieve.
• All children will make excellent progress from their respective starting points.
• All children will be measured and tracked against British National Curriculum age-related expectations.
• When a child is not meeting expectations, intervention and action will be taken to ‘close the gap’.
• Teachers are experts at using assessment to tailor their teaching so that all children achieve their potential.

We deliver these principles through a rigorous and systematic assessment and tracking system, which revolves around:

Baseline Assessment

Upon entry, students are given an age–appropriate baseline assessment in reading, writing, speaking and listening, and maths. This helps us establish a starting point from which to measure the child's progress and determine as early as possible any areas of strength or need for intervention.

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence on a day-to-day basis, for use by learners and their teachers, to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there. This can happen in a number of ways:

• Observing the children when they are learning
• Asking open-ended questions to elicit understanding
• Posing complex problems to solve
• Assessing written work the children have produced
• Giving written and oral feedback
• Peer and self-assessment
• End of unit assessments and progress tests

Termly Tracking

Each term, teachers carry out a more detailed and formal scrutiny of the children’s learning, which is moderated and checked in year group teams and across the Primary School. The evidence is then used to establish a level of attainment for each child against the British National Curriculum expectations. This helps us ensure we effectively track all students' attainment and progress, and maintain high expectations for the children's academic progress. In addition, this data is used to guide teachers in planning pertinent and individualised learning opportunities for students and setting targets.

Pupil Progress Meetings

Each term, we also hold pupil progress meetings to discuss the learning needs of all students, in collaboration with the EAL and SEN teams. At these meetings, we agree on intervention strategies for specific children, identify trends in the attainment and progress data and decide upon curriculum revision to better tailor lessons to pupils' needs.

End of Year Assessment

At the end of each academic year, students complete standardised tests from the UK to support teachers in measuring their pupils achievement and progress. As well as providing information about a child’s attainment, the tests enable us to compare our students worldwide, provide feedback on how we are improving as a school and aid pupils in making a smooth transition to the secondary school.