Primary is organised into two sections. Each of these sections is focused on meeting the development needs of that age group, with teachers who have an in-depth understanding of how to educate, nurture and assess the progress of the children in their care, ably led by our Assistant Head. Our child-centred philosophy also ensures that there is a smooth transition between each of these stages in your child’s learning journey.
- Assistant Head Early Years Foundation Stage, Mrs Paula McDonald
- Assistant Head Key Stage 1 & 2, Mr Gareth Clarke
Internationally Minded
At GIS we offer an international curriculum using the British education system as a framework, modified to suit the needs of our international intake. This aims to instill our Core Values in students and promote positive attitudes towards learning and society in general.
With a strong academic emphasis on literacy and numeracy skills, class teachers ensure the GIS curriculum offers a differentiated, broad and balanced variety of educational opportunities that allow for independence, communication, inquiry, thinking, creativity and challenge. Our Primary specialists support our curriculum, teaching languages (Thai, or Spanish from Year 3), Music, Physical Education and Swimming plus EAL (English Additional Language) and LS (Learning Support) for those children who need that little bit more attention to access learning in the classroom). Primary at GIS is a great start to your child’s education.
Curriculum Support:
Upon entry to the school every child is asked to complete an assessment of speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in English. The results inform teachers of the type and amount of additional support that may be required in supporting your child at school.
A Day in the Life of a Primary Student:
The Primary School day begins at 7:30 when we enter the Primary school via the Primary school entrance. Students then head to their classrooms for registration time.
From 8:00am lessons begin. Primary students have seven periods a day consisting of:
- Literacy – daily
- Maths – daily
- Phonics – daily (up to Year 2)
- Reading – four times a week plus a library skills session
- Science – twice a week
- Topic – twice a week
- Computing – twice a week
- PE – twice a week
- Music – twice a week
- Modern Foreign Languages (Spanish or Mandarin) – twice a week
- Thai – daily (Thai students) or twice a week (Expat students)
- Swimming – once a week
- Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) – once a week
- Whole school Primary Assembly – once a week
- Golden Time (our reward system linked to our behaviour policy) – once a week
*Spellings, times tables and group intervention tasks are linked to Literacy and Maths in the timetable.
Students enjoy a break time each morning from 9:20am to 9:40am when they can play with their friends and enjoy a healthy snack from our canteen. Lunch is served from 11:30 to 12:30 each day.
We end our day at 2:50pm for Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 and 3:00pm for Year 5 and Year 6. At this time, students are collected by a designated parent or guardian from the Primary school entrance.
We offer an Extra-Curricular Activity (ECA) programme every day which runs from 3:00pm to 4:10pm. There are options for families who would like their child to participate with a variety of activities available for them. Some are free, offered by our teaching staff, and others are paid clubs from external providers. These can be signed-up for on our Parent Portal.