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English is at the heart of learning at Ghars International School. All subjects (except foreign languages) are taught through the medium of English and English is the working language of the school, with students and staff being expected to speak English at all times. We have high expectations of all our students and, on leaving school, students will have attained a very good level of both the spoken and written language.

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Key Stage 1 aims to:

 

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• Develop awareness in students of their own value as an individual and as a member of the community.

• Help students develop lively inquiring minds, the ability to question and to apply themselves to tasks and physical skills.

• Inspire confidence in students to acquire basic skills, knowledge and concepts, where possible through first-hand experience.

• Instill respect for religious and moral values and to help students to value and be sensitive towards others.

• Help students to understand and appreciate the world in which we live.

• Create lifelong learners.

• Create a stimulating and effective learning environment for all the students entrusted into our care.

• Promote a good working environment for students, teachers, non-teaching staff and parents.

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English Intervention

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• Grade 1 and 2 start the first term with our four weeks English intervention program. For many years we have found this to be an extremely effective tool. Some new students start at a very low level and we want them to access the curriculum with minimal challenges thus this program targets areas of phase 2 and 3 phonics to support early reading, hand writing – letter formation and developing listening skills through storytelling activities. Because of the huge benefits for our, new, non-English speaking children we have also extended the program to our returning children because of the long summer breaks. It serves a powerful enhancement for learning and allows children to become confident learners.

 

English

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• We focus on nonfiction and fiction text so children can get a wholistic learning experience at GIS. Topics are taught using the Talk4Writing style whereby children are initially enticed then they go through the different stages to process the topic with creative and engaging lessons. It all starts with the model text carefully designed by teachers to use and teach vocabulary, grammar, actions, speaking and writing through children creating story maps, http://www.talk4writing.co.uk/.  We base our topics around local events in Oman and international events about other countries too. Grade 1 studied Kenya and grade 2 studied Japan as part of their topic and looked at animal facts as well as food culture. We discuss and write information texts and fact files. As part of this we will look at using subheadings and writing in the third person. Children continue story retelling in fiction writing where we extend upon the writing, learning about the structure of the story, characters and behaviour. Children look at how to change text and write their own version to develop the skills for them to be creative writers.

• As part of this the focus is always on correct sentence construction (full stops, capital letters, finger spaces) but will also extend to using a greater variety of connectives to add detail. Pupils are also encouraged to start sentences in a variety of ways, for example using time connectives to sequence sentences and write short narratives.

• Guided reading/Phonics

• These sessions are a must to develop love for books, stories and enhance reading skills. This takes place 4 times a week including practice of sounds and word building. Teachers will listen to reading for individual children and ensure fluency in order to up move levels.

 

 

Maths

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• In maths we develop their skills in addition and subtraction and place value. They will learn and practice a range of methods for addition and subtraction to 20, 50 and 100 to ensure that children can read, write and solve number sentences confidently. Children will also compare and order larger numbers. We will use hundred squares, dienes and tens frames to support our understanding.

• Children begin to learn to compare and measure lengths and heights of people and objects and develop their comparative language such as shorter, tallest and the same. In addition, they learn about mass and volume by comparing and measuring weight and capacity by using language such as lighter, heaviest, full and empty.

• Towards the end of the year children will be learning how to tell the time; and develop the awareness and concept of time and space. They will start learning about the analogue and digital clocks and do various activities around this topic. In grade 2 children will be continuing money topic looking at notes and coins, finding the difference between different amounts and adding and subtracting. Moving on from this, we looked at using counting in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s within our money topic by reviewing the Omani and British coins and notes, recognising and comparing values and beginning adding different money amounts together. We also will look at Multiplication and Division including knowing the 2-, 5-, 3- and 10-times tables fluently, sharing equally into different groups and knowing that these two operations are inverse. We will then be looking at different units of measurement; we will start with length and height. We will then be looking at mass, capacity and temperature. We will be sending more games to play throughout this term and ensuring we recap things we have done over the year.

• Finally, all units end with end of unit assessment to ensure children have a secure knowledge and skills for each topic and to allow the teacher to plan in accordance to what areas children need more support.

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Science

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• Our science topic will run alongside English as we start by looking at animals with a focus on discussing how they grow and change. As well as sorting and classifying animals using terms such as herbivores and carnivores etc. This will be followed by learning about the life cycles for animals, people and plants; identifying common plants around us; labelling and describing parts of a plant. Forces and motions also a major topic whereby children learn how push and pull works by doing fun physical activities. There is a focus on what is electricity, sources and energy as well as shadows and the movement of the sun. In grade 2 we look at deepening students’ knowledge and understanding in all the topics and enhance their experimenting and investigation skills too.

 

ICT

 

• We start the year to show the students ICT is all around and in every aspect of our lives and with look at jobs and skills involving ICT. students will be learning how to use the computer to create and manipulate text. We will do some basic typing linking this to our English and Topic lessons in the term. The children will also consider how to change the look at the text and justify their reasons for making the changes. We type up some facts about the animals we have been learning. They will be able to explain which method they prefer using a computer to create text or writing text with images on power point and word document. There will be a focus on e-safety throughout the year to ensure children are aware of the online risks. Children start learning early stages of programming and decoding using the scratch program and developing their understanding of algorithms.

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