The British Educational Children’s Centre currently caters for children aged 2 to 11 years old. The are four distinct stages in the school, each of which is described below. They are Nursery, Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3.
Nursery (EYFS, age 2-3+)
The British Educational Children’s Centre Nursery classes follow the guidelines set out in the British Sure Start framework of effective practice called “Birth to 3 Matters”. This gives learning goals for schools dealing with children of pre-compulsory school age in readiness for them joining the compulsory education system, which begins in class 1.
The Frameworks focus is the child. It identifies four aspects, which celebrates the skills and competence of babies and young children and highlights the interrelationship between growth, learning, development and the environment in which they are cared for and educated.
The British Educational Children’s Centre Nursery classes follow the above-mentioned guidelines suggested and approved by the Department of Education (DFEE) and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in its document “Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage”.
The Foundation Stage Document recognizes that these formative years are distinct and extremely important phases of a child’s development. The British Educational Children’s Centre applies this with the latest documentation EYFS (2008).
In Literacy the children are introduced to the alphabet and letter sounds. The appreciation of books is fostered by the use of a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, class story time and one to one time spent on pre reading skills.
Mathematics is designed to promote young children’s communication, confidence and persistence, both when they work alone and when they work collaboratively with other children and adults.
Mathematics supports children in learning to become flexible, resourceful and confident Mathematicians by providing developmentally appropriate tasks where the children can experiment, describe, invent, visualize, predict and use non-standard measures.
A firm understanding of the basics of Mathematics and Literacy greatly improves the child’s confidence in himself and his own ability.
Equal time is spent in the Nursery on social skills, caring and sharing, appreciation of others and their property and correct behavior.
The Nursery classes make use of all of the equipment in the class to implement the curriculum e.g. taking turns- matching games, sharing – using large puzzles, fine motor skills- building a tower, sorting and matching – using the different coloured cars. In the Early Years classes, teachers provide the children with ample time to express their creative side using a variety of art and craft materials in individual work and large group projects.
Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 (Year 1-6, age 4-11 years)
The National Framework for Literacy (2007)
Literacy unites the important skills of reading and writing and comprehension skills. It also includes goals for “Speaking and Listening”.
Children at this stage undertake Literacy activities for about one hour each day. The work is planned at an appropriate level for the class with differentiated activities to challenge the children.
Literacy Lessons encourage children to:
- Read with confidence, fluency and understanding
- Use a full range of reading cues (phonics, graphic, contextual, syntactical) to read text.
- Monitor their own reading and correct their own mistakes.
- Make the connection between sound and spelling system, enabling them to read and spell correctly.
- Write fluently and legibly, stopping to check their writing for omissions, meaning and coherence.
- Broaden their vocabulary and include new words in their own written work and speech.
- Write for different purposes.
- Plan, draft, revise and edit their own writing
- Read for enjoyment and information.
- Develop their powers of imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness.
Review (Plenary) – The class is brought together at the end of the session so the children can reflect on their activities and share their ideas with others. It is also a time when teaching points are re-emphasized and any misconceptions can be addressed.
The National Framework for Mathematics (2007)
Numeracy is a proficiency, which involves confidence and competency with numbers and measures. It requires an understanding of the number system, computational skills and problem solving in a variety of contexts as well as practical understanding of measures and the way mathematical information is gathered.
The work is planned at an appropriate level for the class and activities are differentiated to challenge all children.
During the program the children will learn about:
Numbers – Counting and understanding about the value of numbers, fractions and decimals.
Calculations – Understanding addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
Solving problems – working on ‘real life’ problems and finding out why Numeracy is important in everyday life, using and applying their mathematical skills.
Measure – Shape and Space, understanding the properties of different shapes, units of measure (length, weight, capacity, time, area), position, direction and co-ordinates.
Handling Data – Collecting information and recording this in the most appropriate form (pictorially, graphically, charts, tables). Children will use the computer for some of this work.
The children also participate in History, Geography, Science, ICT, PE, Art and Design Technology as well as a specially designed Thai language and culture course specially designed to take into account the internationalism of our school’s community.
All lessons follow a distinct pattern to ensure progression and understanding of each subject takes place as follows:
Introduction: A quick activity to engage the children with the subject. It may work towards the lessons objective or may consolidate a previous lessons learning.
Main: The teacher will introduce the topic for the day and teach the lesson before setting the children an activity to develop their knowledge within the lesson’s learning intention.
Review (Plenary) – The class comes together at the end of the session so children can reflect on their activities and share their ideas with others. It is also a time when the teaching point is re-emphasized and misconceptions can be dispelled.
