The Primary School English Department consists of 16 teachers from many different countries, providing a wealth of diversity and experience and exposing our students to English as a global language. Teachers take a holistic view of their young students. As well as academic progress and the development of creativity and critical thinking, the development of essential social and study skills is encouraged.

The programme in the primary school introduces English as a foreign language in kindergarten and develops the students’ English through to grade 4. One of our objectives in the early years is to instill a love of English in our students. The approach is communicative and topic-based. All the skills; listening, speaking, viewing, reading and writing, as well as structural and lexical knowledge of the language are developed systematically over the years. Cooperation, responsibility and independence are fostered.

Alongside ELT course books and readers, digital resources, authentic literature and a wide variety of teacher-designed materials and activities are used to allow for differentiated instruction. At each level we include ‘split’ (half the class) lessons so that students are able to practise the target language in a small group, either in their own classroom or in one of our English activity rooms. By the end of grade 4, our students feel confident learning in an English only environment and are eager to develop their language skills further in middle school.