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British Curriculum

The National Curriculum for England taught at Reach British School is student-centred and challenges students to excel academically, emotionally and socially.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment are three interconnected processes which help support the teacher (and parents) in applying the most relevant techniques to support individual children in their education.

“Teachers at Reach British School don’t just teach ‘the curriculum’ – they teach the individual children in their care. This means that their knowledge of each individual child is taken into account when teachers plan their lessons.”

They build up a profile of each student through observations and analysis of student work allowing them to consider how the student learns best – do they have particular interests, do they like particular activities, are they quiet or more outgoing, what is their current English language level? These observations are used in weekly collaborative planning sessions where teachers share ideas about planning the most effective lessons and how they monitor the progress of children closely, adapting their sequence and timings spent on particular topics to respond to their children’s needs.

Children mature and progress at different rates, and our teachers are mindful that each child is challenged to their level and not pushed too hard before they are developmentally ready to tackle particular concepts. This is very important to ensure that students feel success in their learning and do not begin to feel inadequate compared to other members of their class. Learning is not a race and we cannot expect all children to make progress at the same rate.

As a many of our students are native Arabic speakers, teachers try and support student learning by teaching similar content areas at the same time across the National Curriculum of England and the Ministry of Education curriculum. This is especially effective in FS1 and FS2, where teaching the same vocabulary words in both languages aids understanding. This is not always possible in primary and secondary school, where our curricula have not been written in conjunction with each other, but it is attempted and highlighted in teacher’s yearly plans

Teaching and Learning

We believe that children learn best when they:

  • Are happy
  • Are interested and motivated
  • Achieve success and gain approval
  • Are given tasks which match their ability
  • Are provided choice
  • Clearly understand the task
  • Are confident, feel secure and are aware of boundaries
  • Are challenged and stimulated

Achievement

Social, physical, creative and academic achievements are celebrated in many ways as an on-going process in all aspects of school life, by:

  • Verbal or written praise by teachers, peers, principal and parents
  • Displays of work
  • Opportunities to perform or share
  • Encouraging self esteem
  • The awarding of stickers, house points and certificates
  • Sharing success with the school community through events like assembly

The Learning Environment

This should be organised to ensure that children:

  • Move from the known to the unknown; prior knowledge should be established before adding new starter activities
  • Understand what they are being asked to do by being given clear objectives, and appropriate and understandable feedback
  • Feel confident to share and discuss their concerns, ideas, and knowledge
  • Work in a stimulating environment and have a curriculum that can be related to
  • Have the opportunity to experience different kinds of tasks e.g. group work, paired work, project work, and problem-solving
  • Have opportunities to take risks, without the need for total success (this can be modelled by teachers who try new activities in class e.g. science experiments)
  • Receive appropriate support, both pastorally and academically, from supportive staff, differentiated learning plans, and specialist staff where there are additional learning requirements
  • Develop socially by making decisions, working co-operatively, having leadership roles, developing independence, and using their initiative
  • Have plenty of opportunity to build upon their English language acquisition

The Physical Environment

All classrooms should have tables and chairs are arranged for:

  • Ease of working
  • Flexibility
  • Purposeful discussion
  • Provision of quiet corners
  • Large working surfaces
  • Ideally they should be placed in groups to encourage co-operative learning

As well as storage units are arranged to:

  • Support different areas of the curriculum
  • Support a project or activity
  • Give character to a room
  • House children’s personal belongings
  • Encourage student independence in using the best resources
  • To set an example that taking care of our environment is important