I would like to extend a warm welcome to Upper Primary. I hope that this page allows you to get a feeling for what students in Year 5 and Year 6 experience on a daily basis. The aim of these important primary years is to prepare students for life in Secondary school, whilst also helping them to gain a range of experiences and skills which can help them to become more confident and independent in their learning.
We pride ourselves on our small class sizes (maximum of 20) which allow us to offer a high level of stability and individualised learning. Over the two years that the students are in Upper Primary, they have the opportunity to build good relationships with their peers and teachers and are encouraged to take risks with their learning in a safe and nurturing environment.
It is our pleasure to be able to lead strong and dynamic teams of staff and students, whose well-being and happiness is at the forefront of everything that we do.
Upper Primary follows the English National Curriculum. In these key primary years, there is an emphasis on covering the learning objectives as set by the National Curriculum, but also to provide a plethora of opportunities and lessons which allow the students to delve deeper into the subjects and explore mastery approaches.
We use themes through our Topic and Science curriculum units to link different subjects and we regularly evaluate the topics that we cover to include areas that are of significant interest to the children. We aim to link our class readers in English to our Science or Topic unit, so that the children have a wider understanding of the subject.
In all lessons, children are supported in making reasoned choices about what level of work they will access. This is achieved through the use of challenges which the children select from in most areas of the curriculum. The work is divided into three levels: Tricky, Trickier & Trickiest. In addition, we also give all students the opportunity to extend their learning with extension and greater depth activities.
In Upper Primary, we have a variety of subjects that take place across a normal school week. These include:
These lessons are taken by the class teacher, with support given by our Learning Support Coordinator where needed.
We are also in a very fortunate position to have a team of highly skilled and experienced specialist teachers who teach the following subjects to students in Upper Primary.
All classes also have an allocated slot to go and visit the school library on a weekly basis, where they can loan up to three books for a period of two weeks. Our fantastic librarian, Miss Katia, is always available to provide advice and assistance to ensure students develop a passion and love for reading.
In Upper Primary, we assess the children’s progress through teacher assessments and termly formal assessments. All students take a formal assessment in the areas of: Mathematics, Reading and GAPS (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling). These assessments are taken during school time, in a more formalised setting and are an opportunity for us to see if the children are currently working at, above, or below, the expected level for that time of the school year.
Assessments are carried out in December (Autumn Term), March/April (Spring Term) and May (Summer Term). The raw score from the assessment is converted into a level and allows us to see how the students are managing with the curriculum expectations. We share the results of these assessments with parents and use them to put into place any extra support ( gifted and talented or learning support) and to inform future planning of subject areas.
No child is ever judged purely on the results of these assessments. They are one tool that we use to help us plan more effectively and ensure that each individual student’s needs are met.
On a weekly basis, students also have spelling, times table and arithmetic tests. They also have regular vocabulary and end of unit tests in Spanish and French. Resources for these tests to be used at home for practice and revision are given to the students, but can also be found on our learning platform, Firefly.
In Mathematics, students also have the opportunity to take their Big 50. The concept here is for students to answer 50 multiplication questions in 3 minutes. Once they have passed this, they are challenged to the Silver and Gold Awards with more difficult challenges including: missing number calculations, division and application of times table knowledge to higher number calculations. In Year 5, students must repeat their Big 50 and can then begin the Upper Primary Silver and Gold challenges.
Contact us to recieve our booklet where we cover all aspects of Upper Primary at EIC
We recognize the importance of choosing the right school for your family and we are here to help. Please take the time to read through the Admissions pages to familiarise yourself with the admissions process, but don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions.
When you are ready please visit the Making an Enquiry page to begin the process of joining us.
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